Code Yellow
by Mediumfan93
Summary: A freak storm causes an underground tunnel to become unstable and many people are in danger. The surgeons are called to the scene and end up in need of help themselves.
1. Chapter 1

It was eight-thirty AM as Arizona strode down the corridor of Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, a huge grin plastered to her face. She was extremely happy, ever since the wedding of her and her beloved Calliope three months ago life had been nothing less than super. She was now bound in love to her soulmate and love of her life Calliope Torres and shared with her and Mark Sloane a beautiful little baby , Sofia, who had despite her early arrival in the car accident had displayed amazing strength and developement. Also as a bonus Arizona and Mark had grown a lot closer, arguing less and spending more time together having learned to appreciate and accept each others role in the family of four. Mark Sloane had now become the annoying big brother she never had, who argued with her over which movie to watch and what to put on the popcorn and now in baby arguements even took each others side or point of view which bugged Callie endlessly.

Today the sun sun shone brightly through the large pane glass windows into the rooms. The mood of the weather seemed to reflect the mood of the hospital also, as few emergencies arose and especially in the PEDS wing things were well. The children were stable and well-adjusted and the floor was quiet. Even Doctor Stark was smiling and interacting with the children, a rare occurence, but Arizona wasn't complaining.

As lunch came around Arizona walked theough the open double doors and scanned the noisy lunch room for her wife and their group of friends. She quickly found Mark's greying head of hair and saw him surrounded around the table by Callie, her best friend Teddy and Owen Hunt. "Hey guys" Arizona said happily as she sat down next to her wife and gave her a small peck on the cheek. "Hey babe" Callie replied. "Beautiful day, isn't it? Kinda makes you wish you were outside" Aruzona mused to the group. Teddy sighed "Yeah I know, but we're all stuck in here for the next 8 hours". "ughh" Mark grunted in agreement. "Its unusually quiet in the hospital today so we might get a chance to go out or leave early" Owen grunted as he crunched on his salad infront of him. Mark lifted his head from his hands were they were resting and smiled slyly "Things are quiet now but I bet you they won't be for long". Arizona slapped Mark lightly on the arm "Dont say that, you'll jinx us. What's wrong with a nice, quiet day", Callie nodded "I know Mark, don't be a joy-kill". Mark shrugged "Fine, but you know I'm right".

By seven-thirty pm the sun that shone on Seattle had subsided to give way to torrential downpour of heavy rain, thunder and gale-force winds that shook the city violently. The city was designated with weather warnings, to stay inside and keep away from the horrendous weather. Despite the rocky weather the hospital was still relatively quiet and the surgeons, attendings and residents alike found themselves perched on the sofa and chairs in the first floor foyer. All their surgeries finished or delayed they sat infront of the television screen in pure boredom. Bailey, the only absent member of the team stepped into view of the tele, stunned by constant reports of accidents and danger warnings. "What the he'll is goin' on out there?" she said in a tone of mild shock, "Its frigging biblical" said Robert stark in his well known tone of sarcasm. The group grunted and "yeah"ed in agreement. "You'd think that weather like this would cause some serious accidents. It's too quiet" Christina Yang said non-chalantly, Everyone looked at Christina at this statement. "Is surgery all you think about?" Meredith said in surprise to her best friend. Christina gazed at everyone in confusion "What?" she shrugged, April and Lexie glared at Christina shocked "You are evil" April said, Christina rolled her eyes at this "Oh shut it, what are you my conscience?", "No" April laughed "Apparently you don't have one". Alex let out a small laugh, "Get lost evil spawn" Christina snapped. Just as Alex was about to retaliate Chief Weber appeared with a solemn look on his face. "Everyone, listen up" he said, voice elevated. "There has been an accident on the motorway leading under the river" , "What kind of accident" Jackson cut in. "Due to the extreme weather conditions over the past hours there has been pressure placed on the Walls of the motorway leading underground and there has been a cave-in-". Among the group were gasps of worry and awe at this information, Chief weber glared "I am not finished" he shouted and the group immediately fell silent. "There is a large number of people trapped underground and there is a fear that the Walls may completely cave in and there is not enough Search and Rescue teams to handle this crisis on such short notice. They need help". Chief Weber scanned the faces of the surgeons and sighed "I have been told to assemble as many Doctors as possible to send down there for assistance with injured civilians. I am not going to lie to you, it is a very risky and dangerous job. Anyone who wishes to stay here with me to help with surgeries is free to do so, I will chose one or two to stay here with me". Chief could see by their expressions ,the worry and fear in their eyes at this task, but also the fierce determination. "Torres, Bailey and Fields. You stay with me to supervise with surgeries", Callie immediately jumped up at this "What?..why me?" she yelled in surprise. "Because" Chief Weber stated "You're still recovering from two major surgeries and since I need to send all my surgeons in, which include Robbins and Sloan" he said eyeing Callie "If anything were to happen to one of them you're still here safe to take care of your child". After the last sentence he could see a glimmer of fear set in Callies eyes and he could see her ready to argue "This isn't debatable" he said firmly and now looked at Arizona amd Mark who also looked fearful at the idea of the mission but relieved at the prospect of Callie not joining them. "Anyone who doesn't want to go, speak up now". Everyone remained silent, either in shock or agreement he wasn't sure. He waited a few more seconds before continuing "Okay, get moving". At this everyone moved off the seats and rushed off to get ready, but Callie, Mark and Arizona remained. Callie spun round to face them "You can't go" she stated simply. Arizona's face softened "Callie..we have to-", "No!" Callie exclaimed. "Callie, we'll be fine. We'll look after each other" Mark said firmly and Arizona nodded. "You just do your job here, okay" she said looking Callie in the eye "I love you" she said before stepping back and rushing off to get ready. Mark gave Callie a friendly hug and followed behind Arizona, looking back and giving callie a wink as he left. Callie was left in the foyer, helpless, as she watched her wife and best friend run up the stairs and out of sight. Bailey stood beside Callie, placing her arms around her in comfort "Theyll be okay" she said quietly to Callie before leading her out if the foyer.

Mark saw the look of fear and anger in Callie's eyes as Arizona and he walked away from her. A feeling of his own fear wrenched in his gut as he followed Arizona to the supplies area and collected the equipment they needed. No sooner had mark put on his fluorescent blue medical coat did tbd Chief enter the room full of surgeons "Okay team I'm going to split you into groups of four, each group will go by chopper to the sight and be directed by Search and Rescue. Group one: Karev, Stark, Sloan and Robbins. Mark mentally high-fived as he heard he was with Arizona, knowing he could keep a better eye on her that way. Alex also felt relieved as being paired with Stark meant possibly a difficult night ahead unless Arizona was there to pit him right. "-Group two: Kepner, Little Grey, Altman and Avery". Mark saw Lexie and Avery share a smile at being paired together and stood closer to one another and April stepped beside Teddy, keeping in group. "-And finally Group three: Grey, Sheppard, yang and Hunt", mark also noted the happiness as the two couples were grouped together and Meredith and Christina sided together whispering to each other with stony faces. Chief Weber glanced momentarily noting the distinct features and expressions on each of their faces, they stood watching him obediently like children awaiting instruction from parents. "Group one to the chopper first, the others will await the next one arriving. Good luck and God speed".

Arizona sat on the edge of her seat, literally as the helicopter swayed from the force of the wind pertruding from all angles. She couldn't feel anything but the butterflies in her stomach, her nerves were eating away at her. She couldn't reason with herself that everything would be okay, because she didn't know if they would be. She looked directly across from her seat to where Stark and Karev sat, both deadly still. Robert, the usually detached, irritable surgeon even had a mixed look of nervousness and fear, his forehead creased with worry. Karev merely traced his finger along the handle of the duffle bag of medical supplies held in his arms. Arizona lay her head back and sighed. Her feelings must have shown easily as she then felt a warm hand, bigger than her own slip into hers and grasp it tightly. She looked to her left and her eyes met with Mark's, who winked at her. At this she let out a small smile and felt some of her tension slip away if only for a moment. In reply she tightened her grip on Mark's hand, not wanting to let go.

Mark felt a large jolt as the chopper collided with the hard ground and a huge gust of freezing cold air hit his face, freezing him momentarily and making him shiver. "Hey, I'm Steve from Search and Rescue. I'm going to supervise you in the tunnel. Come with me" he said shouting over the wailing of sirens and blowing of wind and rain. With that Mark watched as Arizona climbed out of the chopper followed by Karev, Stark and himself. He immediately felt himself wobble on his feet and stumble over only to be caught by Stark with a hand to his shoulder, steadying him. "You alright?" he shouted to Mark. Mark nodded in thanks and gave him a thumbs up. The area was cluttered with wires and gurneys that Mark found himself weaving through. Finally the group stopped at what looked like a man-hole cover. The man pointed down at the hole "Okay, gang this is a Tunnel entrance to the underground tunnel and we have to climb down here to get there. We don't have time set up harnesses so be careful and when you get down there watch, it might be quite flooded" , "Flooded?" Mark shouted to him in confusion. "Yes" the man replied "The whole area is surrounded by the water from the river and some of the wall has cracked, that's why it's an emergency evacuation ordered. The people physically able to climb out will. The ones who can't will need to be carried out somehow". Arizona looked back unsurely at Mark before returning her attention to Steve. Steve took Arizona's arm and lead her to the ladder at the edge of the man-hole cover and she grabbed on to the edge and lowered herself down out of the sight of Mark.

Arizona lowered each foot slowly as she made her way down the tunnel. The ladder was wet and slippery and Arizona on instinct felt her knuckles tighten around the metal poles. The tunnel looked longer than it was and soon Arizona reached a solid stone landing, placing one foot after the other carefully so as not to slip. As soon as she reached the floor she released her hands from the ladder, stretching them to relax them from their super-tight grip. She looked up to see a pair of feet about ten metres upward making their way slowly down. She realised then she had to move on, the tunnel she saw hadone exit to her right which was rather small and restricted. She would gave to go down on her hands and knees. She moved forward through the tunnel until she saw a dim light at the end which became bugger the closer she moved. Eventually she climbed through the hole into the light. The sight she met amazed her. Dimly lit as the tunnel appeared she saw instantly a huge pile up of cars against the wall furthest away from her. More cars were scattered haphazardly on the Tarmac road, she noticed also huge cracks in the foundation and walks that poured small streams of liquid. Her gaze caught almost instantly to a large, battered yellow school bus that sat to the far left. Inside the bus, leant against the pane glass window was numbers of small children and young teenagers with looks of fear and horror plastered on their tiny faces. Shifting herself, she fell from the tunnel landing until her feet hit more solid ground. Though, as she hit the ground she felt a cold sensation flow around her ankles. Ice cold. The liquid she had seen earlier now pooled around her, covering her feet making her shiver. Arizona quickly was snapped from her thoughts by the wailing of scared voices all around her, she saw Search and Rescue members helping others and so made her way to the bus. Stopping at the window, met with the tiny humans faces pressed against the window, as though trying to break through the glass. Arizona put her hands up in a thumbs-up "Im going to get you out okay , don't worry I'll be right in" she said raising her voice to let the children hear. She waded through the cold water to the door, placed her hands against it and pushed with all her strength. The door creaked in acknowledgement of the pressure placed on it but didn't budge. She pushed again. Nothing. She noticed a small gap in the door, looking around she saw on the ground a loose pipe swaying in the waters current and grabbed it. Swinging her med kit bag ove her shoulder she raised the pole and wedged it into the gap. Making sure it was firmly in place and pushed in the opposite direction of the door opening. The door didn't move 'damn it' she thought angrily.

Mark pressed both feet onto the Tarmac and jumped at the feeling of the ice water at his feet "Aagh!" he yelled. Robert looked around at him and yelled "You alright?" he asked, Mark nodded and stepped forward scanning the road for Arizona. After a few moments he saw her at the door of a school bus smashed against the left side of the wall. He saw her pushing at the door, trying unsuccessfully to open it. He quickly ran towards it and out of the corner of his eye saw Stark and Karev trying to pry open a car door with the shape remeniscent of a pretzel. As he reached the door he reached out and touched Arizona's shoulder "Aagh!" she yelled and jumped to the side. Mark raised his hand in defense "Just me" he mused, she raised her hand to her chest and breathed deeply "Sorry" she sighed. "Jumpy?" he half laughed. "Can you help me with this it won't budge" she said exasperated. With that they both leaned hard against the pole, gritting their teeth until the door, moving inch by inch, was pushed open. Arizona gave a small smile and jumped up the steps, Mark following closely behind her. "Everyone Okay?" Mark yelled, a collection of 'yeahs ' and nodding of heads showed they were. "Okay kids listen up" Mark heard Arizona say "We're going to bring you off the bus two at a time okay". Again the kids nodded in agreement. Mark turned to Arizona "I count ten kids, none hurt we get them out and give them to Steve" arizona nodded and went to a seat, scooping two small children in her arms about five years old and walked quickly off the bus to the man in black uniform.

Arizona stepped off the bus carefully so she didn't trip. As she hit the Tarmac again she shivered, it was still as cold as the first time. The water gad risen in the short time spent on the bus and was now at her shins, they would all have to work faster. She ran over to Stevd who took the terrified children from her arms and ushered them through the tunnel. Arizona looked at him shocked "Youre just going to let them go up there by themselves?" she said , "No" he replied sternly "There are S and R men in the tunnel to take them up" he reassured her. As she turned she saw Mark right behind her with two more children, handing them to Steve he pulled her by the arm back to the bus and collected four more children of the bus and repeated the action. Only two teenagers were left. As they approached the bus door for the third time they heard a loud creaking noise all around them, the infrastructure was falling, bending, they knew it. They both shared a worried look as the Walls creaked and ground. Mark nudged Arizona in a hurrying motion "Move" he said whilst moving forward, Arozona quickly followed, carrying the frightened girl in her arms to the tunnel. After she left Arizona sighed "Lots more to go", "Damn Straight, shout if you need help" Mark replied and they moved in opposite directions to people in need.

Arizona jogged through the sea of cars on the road, leaning in and looking through the shattered glass windows for a sign of human life. Search and Rescue had done a good job evacuating people, but the road was long and there were more people further up. "Arizona" called out a female voice, she snapped to attention, scanning the area for the voice. She looked further ahead and saw April Kepner waving her hands frantically for Arizona. She was standing next to minivan, the left side of which was crushed against the wall. There was a burst pipe directly above the vehicle spraying water all over the car while April and Lexie tried to push another car away from the doors on the right hand side. Arizona struggled through the pool of water which she noticed now reached her knees, slowing her down, forcing her back. As she reached the van she was met by a thankful look from the young surgeons. Arizona looked at April "Whats the situation?" she asked bluntly "Car won't budge, there's a woman and two kids trapped in there. We think the mother might be more seriously injured" she said in reply. "And the car door won't budge?" "No" April sighed heavily. Arizona made her way over to the window of the vacant passenger seat, she gripped the handle and pulled with no luck. They didn't have time to mess about, they needed to open the doors now. As Arizona tried to think she saw April turn to Lexie "Tell the kids to move to the back, away from the front window. Tell them to cover themselves with something", Lexie and Arizona stared at her "What are you going to do?" Lexie asked her. "Just do it!" April ordered, Lexie turned to the children "Listen, I need you to stay back from the front window and cover your eyes, Okay. She yelled. The children yelled and moved back carefully, pulling their coats over their eyes. April then jumped on the hood of the van almost falling back off from the downpour of water from above making her slip. Arizona instinctively moved towards her placing a hand out for her to grab for balance. " Thanks, Im okay" April assured her. She stood up so that both feet were placed firmly on the hood. Lifting her right leg she smashed it down on the glass window causing a large crack to form on the windshield. She brought down her foot again two more timed before the screen fell through and small pieces of glass flew from the van. Lexie turned to Arizona, a smile on her face "Nice" she said, Arizona nodded "Impressive" she responded. "Guys?" came April's muffled voice, the two of them rushed up to the hood of the van as they saw two small children climb from the car. "Are you both okay?" Lexie called to them, they nodded. Lexie waved to the children to come over and took them in her arms. Arizona looked at her "Get the kids to the tunnel now" she ordered, Lexie nodded. "Mommy" the small boy whined. Lexie bounced him in her arms "Its okay mommy will be right behind us but we need to go, come on". Lexie turned and moved as quickly as possible towards the tunnel which was quite far away from here. As Lexie left Arizona climbed onto the hood and into the car. She saw April with a handful of Gauze and bandages on the womans shoulder. "There was a metal rod through her shoulder, I pulled it out" she said, "You pulled it out?" Arizona said surprised. "I think it was only a flesh wound and we don't have time to stitch her up anyway. We need to get her out of here". After they bandaged her Arizona grabbed the womans legs while April as gently as possible grabbed hold of her shoulders. The woman grunted in pain as she was lifted out of the van onto the hood and cold water collided with her shoulder. "Cover her, Kepner" Arizona said, April took off her coat and placed it over the woman's shoulders before grabbing her again. They gently eased her off of the hood sliding her down until she was held above the water by April and Arizona. They carried her through ther onslaught of cars, being met halfway through by Lexie and Mark who took hold of the woman and held her close to his chest, his arms held protectively around her. "Go help someone else, I got her" he said firmly, "You sure" Arizona shouted breathlessly, Mark nodded. "Alright, you two with me" she pointed to April and Lexie. As they hurried off in search of other people Arizona asked "Hey, have you seen any other doctors?" she inquired worriedly, "Last we saw, Jackson and Teddy were helping a couple somewhere up there" Lexie pointed round the corner. The group moved up further as they reached a quieter area. The metallic creaking began again making Arizona feel uneasy , she could feel their time running out and she didn't know where to start again. Lexie walked past her and walked over to a car door where a dog was pawing at the window trying to escape. The window was opened slightly and Lexie pryed her fingers in the gap, pulling down the window. As she did this the dog jumped out the window pushing forcefully past Lexie and knocking her down until she was shoulder deep in the water. "Lexie?" April shouted to her, Lexie coughed, spitting out water "Im fine" she coughed. As soon as she said this a snap was heard from above and Arizona and April looked up in fear. Nothing had happened. They sighed, relieved and looked back at Lexie. She wasn't there. Panic set in at Arizona, 'where has little Grey gone?' she wondered. "Wheres Lexie?" she shouted out loud as she and April trudged forward to the car. Arizona bent down and felt for Lexie under the water. She felt the soft feeling of flesh and gripped tightly pulling it up. Lexie's hand came to the surface first and April bent underwater pulling her up until she was lying on the hood of the car. She was unconscious. Arizona automatically put her hand to Lexie's neck trying to feel a pulse, a small bump was felt under her hand. She sighed. April placed her ear to Lexie's mouth and her face scrunched up in worry "Shes not breathing, Lexie?" she yelled. She places her hands on chest and started compressions. "1..2...3-" she whispered pressing down on her chest. Arizona stood still, watching Lexie for any sign of life. "-4..5" she stopped again putting her ear to Lexie's mouth. She lifted her head, looking at Arizona and shook it, she then placed her mouth to Lexie's and breathed into her. Arizona heard a spluttering cough as Lexie's body shook violently, dispelling the water from her lungs. Arizona laughed with joy which was followed by a shrill laugh from April, "Thank God" she mused. Arizona more closely inspected Lexie, there was a sizeable gash on her forehead where blood now oozed from. "What happened to her?" April asked aloud, Arizona looked to the front of the car and saw a thick metal pole floating in the water below. "Theres a pole down there, it must have hit her" Arizona noted. April began to lift Lexie from the car and Arizona grabbed Lexie by the shoulder, helping her. "We need to get her out of here" Arizona said, "Yeah" April replied. Just as they hauled Lexie up by her shoulders they heard another snap, only louder. Arizona looked around, the area was mainly deserted, only where up this end. April and Arizona looked at the wall at the other side, there was a massive crack in the wall from which large waterfall flew freely. Arizona could see the crack widening before her. The wall was just about to collapse, if they were going to get out of here they had to move NOW. Arizona glanced at April and her expression said that she was thinking the same. If this was a cartoon April's mouth would be hitting the floor. "Arizona..." April whispered in shock, "April, c-come on" Arizona stuttered pulling Lexie to the right. April followed and they started to run unsteadily through the water, which was up to their waists. Arizona heard a whoosh and before she could look back was swept off her feet by a powerful force and fell backwards, being engulfed by the water.

Mark jogged to the tunnel entrance, the woman, a heavy lifeless weight in his arms. He huffed breathelessly as he handed her over to Steve, hunched over and breathing deeply. Mark jumped as a hand gripped his shoulder, his senses heightened by the terror of the situation. He was out of his depth.

"Stark?" Mark said, "Yeah. You alright?" he asked. "Not really" came his reply. "Have you seen Robbins or Karev?" Stark asked, his voice laced with worry. Mark took a large gulp of air before continuing "Saw Robbins, Grey and Kepner a couple of hundred yards up", Robert nodded turning back. "Wait!" Mark shouted "Where are you going?", "For the others?" Robert shouted back. Mark straightened himself out "Im coming with you" he gasped, Robert scowled

"Your exhausted", "So are you?" Mark shot back "I can't just leave you to find them besides I promised Callie I'd look after Arizona". Robert noted the look of sheer determination on Mark's face. "Fine". "Woah!" said Steve placing his hand out to stop them "Where are you going, we need to leave". "We have to find our friends. Once we do we'll come straight out. I promise" Robert said firmly. With that he grabbed Mark's hand and followed through the icy water. They managed to get about thirty yards when they heard the swaying of water. They looked up ahead to see a wave rushing towards them, overturning cars and lorries down the road as it raged towards them. "Run!" Robert barked at Mark, grabbing his hand and pulling him in the opposite direction. Robert spotted an open car door out of the corner of his eye "In here" he yelled to Mark and pulled him by the arm to the car. He pulled Mark by his coat and hauled him inside, following him once he was inside and closing the door shut just on time before the huge wave came crashing down. Mark felt the force of the wave as the car flew up into the air being propelled forward and carried slowly by the current. Mark felt himself being thrusted around the small space, his head colliding with the window, seats and dashboard before he eventually lost all feeling. Blackness began to surround him, the crashing and crunching of cars and swishing of water dulled as he lost all consciousness.

Meredith climbed up the narrow tunnel and grabbed awkwardly for the ladder rung above her in desperation. The tunnel had just collapsed and the Search and Rescue team leader had ordered them to get back to the surface as quickly as possible. As she neared the opening to the surface she felt a strong pair of hands grip her arms and lift her up onto the hard ground before letting her go "Thank you" she said quickly. She stood up, swaying a little before regaining her balance and craned her neck up to search for her friends. "Meredith" shouted a sharp female voice, she recognised it instantly "Christina?" se shouted back scanning the area for her best friend. The ground around her was cluttered with Ambulance vehicles, gurneys and Fire Engines. Doctors, fire fighters, search and rescue, police and even Army personnel roamed the area attending to injured or commanding groups. Meredith felt herself being spun around and arms pull her into a tight hug. She recognised Christina's perfume and hugged her back, relieved to see her okay. As soon as Christina let go Derek was next again pulling her into a bone-crushing hug "Are you alright?". Meredith smiled "Im fine" she replied "Got dragged outta there by the guy. Never even told me why, I wasn't finished" she told them. "The walls collapsed" came Alex's gruff voice behind them, Meredith turned around and saw Alex followed by Teddy, Owen and Jackson. Owen cut past Meredith and hugged Christina, after he was done kepping his arm around her waist. Any other time Meredith knew Christina would have shied from public affection but she knew that she was glad to know Owen was okay. Meredith nodded at Teddy and Jackson expecting to see April and Lexie behind them and was surprised when they didn't appear "Where are April and Lexie?", Teddy looked shocked at this "We don't know, we just assumed that they found you" she said surprised, "No" said Derek flatly "You were in their group". Jackson shrugged "There was too many people. We lost track of them". He paused a moment before looking up worriedly "Does that mean they're still down there?" he shouted.

Owen looked pensive for a moment "Alright" he stated "Who's here and who's missing?" he asked. "Stark, Robbins and Sloan were in my group. I haven't seen them since I was down there" he said. "So the five of them are still down there and the wall's collapsed" Christina cut in, "We don't know that" Owen replied. "Okay, we spread out. Try and find them, meet here in ten", everyone nodded before turning on opposite directions and searching for their missing friends.

April gasped for air as she reached the surface of water, coughing and spluttering. Gasping desperately as the fresh, cold air penetrated her lungs. Her eyes were blurry and stinging from the water hittig them, her head was spinning and she was shivering all over. The water was soo cold she thought to herself. She flailed her arms rapidly, struggling to stay afloat, she was exhausted but adrenaline kept her going, survival kept her going. Then she remembered Arizona and Lexie were with her, Lexie was hurt, unconscious. April whipped her head around searching for them but all she saw was the cracked grey walls, piled up cars, cars overturned and floating. It took April a while to realise as reality set in that she was able to touch the ground with her feet. The water however instead of being at her waist was now at her shoulders and the current of flowing water kept her from standing still more than three seconds on her feet. She needed to find the others, she began to take small, unsteady steps forward in a desperate attempt to keep her balance and control. She looked back, she was a few hundred yards down from the area she had been as the crack which had widened next to them was noticable from afar. April knew the crack had released much more water and that it would become much higher, much sooner. April saw out of her peripheral vision a shape by the corner. A car situated at the side if the road merely a few iches above the water level held the unconscious form of Lexie Grey, perched on the roof with legs and arms splayed across. "Lexie" April yelled in deep concern for her friend. She tried to walk against the current which gave fierce resistance and she soon tired out, fighting for breath. She realised she couldn't get there on her own and grabbed onto a car, dragging herself along until she reached Lexie, turning her over. Cupping her face in her hands and bringing her ear to Lexie's mouth. She was breathing. April laughed happily at this. Now she just had to find Arizona. Somehow.

Robert awoke to the smell of the water. The freshness of it shocked him, startled he jumped up. He groaned I pain as the muscled of his back spasmed and ached, his head felt heavy and his vision sluggish. He blinked a few times and opened his eyes again, a feeling of surprise and clarity came to him. Now he remembered, the wave of water that hurdled toward them. They had ran to the car and now, that car was sunken, underwater. Robert looked at the windshield and saw a small hole, merely a crack which was spurting water into the car. He looked back to see Mark Sloan straddled ober the backseat unconscious and unmoving. Robert reached back and shook Mark harshly trying to wake him "Mark. Wake up!" he yelled. At this Mark shifted and turned over "Ughh!" he moaned in pain. "What happened?" he mumbled rubbing his temples, his eyes still shut, Robert shook him harder "Look up, we're underwater. We need to move" he ordered. Mark looked up in confusion "What?...Oh shit" he stated, "I know" Robert replied already on his feet. Mark quickly scramble to his feet "What now?" he inquired in panic, Robert stared at him "Im going to break in the windshield" he said. Mark raised his eyebrows "Wont the water stop us from getting out" he asked, "No. We're not far underwater, it's only up to the roof" "How do you know?" "I can see it" Robert said confidently. He gave Mark a look "Ready?" he asked, Mark nodded in agreement. Robert lifted his arm and elbowed the screen near the crack and water flooded through in succession. Robert ushered Mark out and followed him behind. They both stood on the roof of the car, shocked into silence by the sight before them. The destruction of the road which wasn't visable as water had risen to double it's height before the wave. "Good god, where is everybody?" Mark wondered. Robert shrugged "I think we were the only ones.." he said before stopping. Mark eyed him but noticed Robert was looking to the far left down the tunnel. A figure was crushed against the wall by a car, lying with their head flat on the roof and showing no sign of life. "Good God, it's Arizona" Mark exclaimed. Mark glanced nervously to the right and was shocked as he saw what looked like April Kepner struggling against the fast-flowing water, trying to carry a person. "Stark, it's Kepner" he said pointing to his right, Robert snapped his head round to see the tiny form of his friend and crush, fighting determined among the current.

Mark's brain whirred as he saw April and Arizona at opposite ends of the tunnel. He desperately wanted to help both but knew he and Stark would have to coordinate "Hey" Stark yelled gaining his attention "You help April with the civilian, your taller you'll move faster. I'll help Arizona at the car. You come meet me there I don't think I'll be able to move it on my own even underwater" he said quickly "Cool" mark stated, he could do that. With that Stark jumped in the water to Arizona's aid and Mark began to hop the roofs of the cars close to him to help save time and effort. April saw Mark Sloan approach her and felt relief pour through her, she needed help as she could barely keep her head above the water never mind Lexie's. "Dr Sloan" she gasped she yelled as he jumped into the water next to her. He saw that Lexie was the unconscious person, worry etched across his face "Is she-" "She's breathing" April assured him. He grabbed hold of Lexie and pulled her close to him "Come on" he said and she followed behind him "You okay?" he asked, she nodded. "What happened to her?" he said loudly over the gushing of the water while walking. "I was with Lexie and Arizona up there and a pipe fell on Lexie's head and then not long after the wall caved" she said her face solemn, she decided to omit the detail that Lexie had stopped breathing ad she ad Arizona had to revive her. Arizona! She thought "Arizona, Oh my God she's still down here. We have to find her" she said panicked. "April" he yelled "Arizona is up there" he nodded forward with his head. "She's trapped between a car. Stark's with her" "Oh my God. Is she okay? Is Robert okay?" she said quickly. "I don't know but we have to move quickly. The tunnels bad now but it'll get worse" he said firmly trying to hide his own panic and worry.

Robert waddled his way to the car, coughing and wheezing, the cold was getting to him. Hs skin was wrinkles and peeling, it was the worst cold shower he'd ever had. "Arizona ?" he yelled as he reached the car, he was sure it was Arizona, only now her bouncy blonde curls were matted to her head, soaked and her head was flat on the cold steel roof. He moved in closer to see her face which was, instead of her usual smiley grin was impassive and equal to that of a coma patient. Robert sighed, the one time he was dying to see the usually annoying happy, super grin and Arizona was unconscious and exuming nothing but pain. "Arizona!" he yelled again closer to her ear and shook her a little forcefully, but light enough so as not to do damage. At this he heard a small moan escape Arizona's lips, he saw her eyes flutter ever-so-slightly and her head tilt a little higher trying to look up. "D-Dr...Dr Stark?" she muttered almost silently "Aghh!" she moaned again louder in extreme pain. "I'm here, its alright" he said softly "Where are you hurt?" he continued. "Everywhere" she replied "I feel like my head is on fire, I-I,I cant feel my legs". Robert felt his heart sink at this, Arizona was obviously very injured and Robert knew there was nothing he could do for this but to try and get her out. "I'm going to try and get you out, Sloan's on his way here with April" "April, she's okay?" she whispered, Robert smiled a little "What about Lexie?" she pressed on. 'Lexie?" he thought to himself, that must have been the body April was carrying. Arizona looked shakily at Robert, waiting for an answer "I think she's with April" he replied truthly. He looked to the side and saw Mark with April, he breathed a sigh of relief and just as surely he saw Mark carrying an unconscious Lexie Grey in his arms. Mark and April arrived at the car and Robert met April's gaze, she gave him a small smile which he returned gratefully, both displaying mutual appreciation to see each other. So funny, how a life-threatening disaster could put things in perspective. "How is she?" Mark whispered next to Robert's ear "Bad shape, but conscious that's a good sign. We need to move her outta this car" he whispered back, Mark nodded. "Kepner" he said, she jumped up at her name "Take Lexie for me" he shouted and April pushed herself over, grabbing Lexie's arm and placing it over her shoulder while taking her free arm to grasp Lexie's waist for support. Mark and Robert moved to opposite ends of the car, beside the wall and placing both hands on the car bonnet and hood. Arizona turned her head slowly to face Mark who met her gaze and winked at her "You're gonna be okay, i promise" he said smiling his trade mark Sloan smile. With that they pushed away from the wall and felt the car edging steadily away until Arizona started to slip down from the hood into the water, unable to stop herself. Mark and Robert seeing this jumped down to reach her and both grabed each arm, pulling her back up "Woah, where do you think you're goin' Blondie?" said Mark sarcastically as he pulled her up into his arms, her face beside his to keep her above the water. Arizona groaned as he did this, her face scrunching up in pain. Robert let go of her hand and made his way around the car over to April, who had placed her herself on the roof of another car metres away to keep herself and Lexie up above the water level. Robert lifted his arms up, motioning to April to hand him Lexie. "April give me Lexie, I'll carry her" he said as he took Lexie and placed her over his shoulder "We need to find a way outta here".

Jackson tapped his foot impatiently as he waited near the tunnel entrance, he had searched everywhere, asked everyone if they had seen their missing friends but no one had. With every minute that passed he felt himself losing the ability to rationalise to himself that Lexie and April were okay, unharmed. If anything happened to them he would blame himself, how could he not? he was in their group. April was his best friend, he had known her since Med school, her bubbly, bright and quirky personality brightened up his day and she was the only one he could confide in with his social and professional problems and not be judged. She was like a sister to him. And Lexie, she was his obsession, the person who shared his fun, adventurous side but who also helped him and comforted him when he needed. He loved her. He _loved_ her, he could'nt lose her. He saw the worry and disappiontment on each of their faces as the group all made their way back to the rendevous point. Meredith looked to everyone, hoping, but they had all returned and none of the mising were among them. Jackson saw Meredith's face physically drain of colour "No-one saw them?" she asked pleadingly, there was only silence. Meredith buried herself in Derek's jacket and tears sprung down her cheeks. Even Christina could offer no light hearted joke or words of comfort as she too felt the seriousness and uncertainty of the situation. Jackson felt himself become physically sick and frozen to the spot. As they stood a man dressed in black came towards them "Are you the group who are missing some of your colleagues?" they all nodded "Just because you can't find them does'nt mean they're down there, it might mean that they've returned to the hospital". The group remained silent, their looks that of disbilief. The man continued "We will continue searching for them but you have been ordered to return to your hospital due to unsafe weather conditions here and you have people to treat there. Go!" he ordered, pointing to the choppers sat on the other side of the terrain. The weather was still rampaging rain and gale force winds that shook the ground they stood on. One-by-one they piled into the helicopters to be transported back to Seattle Grace Mercy West without the five remaining members of their team.

Bailey rushed down the corridors of the OR floor with a number of charts piled in her arms. She had recieved call that there were more than two hundred patients to be admitted for medical care, many for surgery. The more dire surgical or medical cases were to be admitted to her hospital as it was nearer than Seattle Presbytarian and so she hurriedly began to prepare OR's and delegate tasks to nurses and doctors alike. Still despite her hurried state her mind still could'nt help but wonder to her babies, the surgeons she had raised and taught,even if not from the very beginning and her fellow attendings who still viewed her as a scarier higher power than them, as 'The Nazi'. She had kept Callie Torres busy, for the simple reason so that she didnt break down or worry that her Wife and best friend, parents of her child and own little family, had been seriously injured or worse. Bailey felt sorry for her as she had seen the indignation in her eyes as she realised she could'nt join them or stop them from volunteering themselves. Bailey knew also that even had Callie begged and pleaded with them to stay on the sidelines with her that they would'nt have done anyway, it just was'nt who they were. Despite their quirks and eccentricities and flaws, Bailey did'nt question the unfeterred loyaly and determination to the job that all the surgeons at this hospital radiated, to helping people. Nothing would get in their way to helping save a patient, _nothing_. As she turned the corner into the main area and entered through the door of the supply closet Bailey saw Callie at the end, tears in her eyes. Worry radiated off of her. Bailey stood by the door for a second, unsure of whether to say something but went over anyway. "Callie?" she said with slight trepidation, there was only silence. "I guess it would be a stupid question to ask if you alright" she continued. At this Callie looked up at the ceiling and back, her face twisted in anger and worry "I hate standing by the sidelines" she stated. Bailey looked down at her feet guiltily, she knew the feeling "I know" she replied "But Callie.." she continued "You know what the Chief said was right". "But I'm fine" she said through gritted teeth "No you're not" Bailey butted in angrily making Callie look at her in surprise. "I feel fine, I feel fit for work". Bailey rolled her eyes at this "Whether _you_ feel fine or not does'nt matter. The fact is you had two major intrusive surgeries a very short time ago and the only reason you feel _fine_ is because you pushed yourself to feel _fine_" she said, her voice raised. She stepped closer to Callie and looked her in the eye "I know your scared for them" she said softly "I am too".This was the truth, she was scared for them, the idea that someone as cute and awesome as Arizona or as fun and laid back as Mark could face potential life-threatening danger and fear was felt it was in place for humour to reassure and comfort her "I dont thibk you need to worry, I mean Mark's pretty level-headed when and if he wants to be and Arizona hardcore, military, nuff said",Callie laughed at this and Bailey felt better at being able to help her, she just hoped nothing had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey sorry it took so long to update, but I've had some serious writers block and a busy week or two. I'm planning to finish the three uncompleted stories I've neglected since I joined, eventually...since I dont even remember how I planned to go with them.**

**Anyway... thanks for all the reviews. I'M so glad you like the story, it makes it feel all worth while and I've tried to correct what I think you meant by the format so hopefully it'll be easier to mother always says that you shouldn't give someone something to read that you can't read yourself and while this is great advice that I try to stick to I find it hard to correct because I am the one who wrote it and I know what the story is about and what the characters are saying. So if you think it could still use work, let me xxx**

Callie and Dr Bailey walked out of the supply closet together and over to the counter in the foyer, laughing lightly at the uncharacteristic toughness of the bubbly PEDS surgeon, who, despite her hardcore military family background and assertive behavior strutted around hospital in heelies and sporting dolphin stickers on her lab coat.

As they were contemplating this the Chief walked towards them with a look of relief. Bailey looked at Callie confused before looking up at the Chief "Hey Chief, what's the matter?" .The Chief gave a small smile to both of them "Good news." he stated "Our doctors have been recalled back to the hospital, they'll be here soon". Callie at these words let out a huge sigh of relief at this. Mark and Arizona and all of their friends would be brought back safely to the hospital and she wouldn't have to think constantly (and irrationally) that they had been hurt or worse. "That's brilliant" Callie heard Bailey almost squeal "When will they be back?" .Chief pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch "In a couple of minutes I think. The first lot of patients should be arriving shortly, the weathers making it difficult and we can wait for the others on the roof". "Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go up there" said Callie practically jogging on the spot. The three of them made their way up the stairs and to the roof to await the Seattle Grace surgeons.

They waited for about five minutes in the dreary, wet rain pouring down on them before they saw a metallic blue chopper materialize from the dark sky and swoop down onto the helicopter pad in front of them. Callie and Bailey held a tight grip on each other for balance as the wind blew hard, causing them both to sway unsteadily on their feet.

Callie saw the copter door slide open and waited impatiently to see Mark and Arizona step out of the vehicle, but as she waited to see the figures of Meredith, Derek, Christina and Owen falling out into a huddle. Callie held her breath in anticipation. Following almost immediately behind them came Teddy, Alex and Jackson all solemn-faced and Callie felt her heart begin to beat erratically as she stared at the door. Waiting. The group of doctors walked to the Chief, Bailey and Callie at the roof entrance.

Meredith felt an overwhelming feeling of fear and dread wash over her as she waited with the other surgeons in dead silence, as they made their way back to the hospital. She worried unrelentlessly for Lexie, and even April who she had grown rather fond of. She looked at Jackson, a stony expression on his face. She saw that in recent weeks he and Lexie had become inseparable and Lexie had appeared happier than ever. There was also April, who was Jackson's best friend, a person he was extremely close to, like her and Christina. She felt so badly for him and feared for him if he were to loose them both.

Then there was Mark and Arizona who were also missing, and Meredith feared Callie's reaction when she found this out. The only thing that stopped her from breaking down with worry was that she had Derek beside her, holding her close and comforting her with his arms around her. She felt the helicopter shake in the wind and felt it lower slowly onto the platform. Meredith felt the dread grow stronger within her; she didn't want to be there to see her fall apart with the same worry that plagued her. She had known Callie for years now and knew as well as anyone that she carried her emotions right on the surface.

The helicopter came to a complete stop and Owen reached forward to open the door, holding back to give way to Meredith and Christina. Meredith felt the patter of rain against her skin, soaking her hair. She reached up and pulled her coat over her head for cover. Immediately she saw three figures before her that she recognized and her heart beat faster. Meredith saw Callie's face drop as everyone exited the helicopter, she knew that Callie knew what was wrong.

The surgeon's all ran through the door, away from the heavy wind and rain. As soon as everyone was inside they all looked at the other three. Callie's look of undeniable fear and worry silenced the group, afraid to speak out and deliver the news that their five friends and colleagues were missing or maybe worse. The Chief shook his head, tired of waiting for an answer "Where are the others?" he said sternly. The group looked at each other with guilty and sorrowful looks "N-no. No" stuttered Callie. Bailey placed her hand on Callie's arm to quiet her "Where are the others?" he repeated with a sharp tone in his voice. Christina raised her head to face him "We don't know" she stated "we tried looking for them but we couldn't find them. We were told to come back here". Seeing Callie's expression become worse Owen jumped in "Nobody has confirmed seeing any of them injured or otherwise...We just can't find them". Teddy looked around "What do we do now?" she asked. The Chief shook his head "If they had been admitted with injuries or worse we would have gotten a call. Until we do hear anything we keep our heads down and do our job because we got multiple trauma cases about to come flooding in here and we need all hands on deck". He walked over to Callie and took her hands in his "That means you too Torres. They are fine until we hear otherwise. Okay?" .Callie gave a weak nod in reply and was ushered away by Bailey.

The group followed numbly behind, ready to work more grueling hours of surgery until news of their friends came to light.

April trudged forward mindlessly. She was exhausted, forcing herself to push one foot in front of the other.

This was in a desperate attempt to keep up with Robert and Mark Sloane who were both carrying the almost lifeless form of Arizona Robbins. April felt the overwhelming desire to just give up to her exhaustion and slink away into the water. Her body was physically drained but her mind was highly alert and the adrenaline was pumping through her, keeping her going.

Then there was the desire to help her friend Lexie, who was in no position to help save herself and whose only hope was April as Mark and Robert already had their hands full with Arizona, literally. The others and Lexie herself would probably have laughed at the prospect of April saving one of them, because according to them she was the weak one, the one who would need saving, if they could only see her now.

The water was now above April's chin and she was trying to push Lexie's head and shoulders above the water with physical strength she never knew she possessed. She was coughing vigorously to force the water which was swirling in her mouth, blocking her oxygen supply. Mark and Robert were miles ahead of her now, she couldn't keep up.

April saw Mark looking behind him, checking on her "Kepner come on, move it" he shouted back. April scowled, annoyed at his order, "What'd you think I'm trying to do?" she shouted sarcastically. Just as she said this she heard the familiar creaking and squealing of the pipes and structure and it ran chills down her spine, time was wearing on and she knew she was at her limit. A deafening bang emitted from behind her and April looked back to see another wave of water gliding down the tunnel at breakneck speed.

Robert knew he should have taken the day off today. He struggled slowly down the tunnel. The hunched form of Mark Sloan on his right, the unconscious form of Arizona in between them like a sandwich. Robert had never believed in superstition or fate or destiny or any of that 'Holkus Pocus' as his father referred to it. He liked to believe that everything was unwritten, unplanned but today he had felt a sense of dread that didn't come with the biblical weather.

Now he was stalking down a severely flooded tunnel, carrying a severely wounded colleague and trapped with three other surgeons who did nothing but save lives and couldn't help but think that someone up high had it in for them. Robert tried to look behind him to see how April was doing, but couldn't. "S-S-Sloan, are April and Lexie okay?" he asked out of breathe from the force of the water. Mark looked back "Kepner come on, move it" he shouted back to her. Robert frowned, was she struggling too much. "What do you think I'm doing?" came the distant sarcasm of April Kepner. Robert smiled at this, he had influenced her somewhat in their time together.

He wished suddenly, in their time of doom, that he had taken her up on her offer to be at least friends. He had made it clear he liked her as much more but now if anything were to happen, their last time together at the hospital would have concluded of arguing. Before he could turn back, Robert was rushed off of his feet and his head fell under the ice cold water.

April kicked her legs and her one free arm, the other gripping desperately onto Lexie's, keeping her near. Her arms and legs flailed in every direction to push herself upward, away from the icy waves. April felt herself propel up until she reached the surface and gasped in a mouthful of fresh air. She pulled her arm up as well dragging Lexie's body up as her head breached the surface.

April had now lost complete control of her body in the water and felt herself pushed forward in the direction of the flowing water. All she could do was keep Lexie from falling under. She kept herself kicking rapidly, looking in every direction for Robert, Mark and Arizona who were nowhere to be found. Panic set in fully as she realized she was alone with Lexie, the water crashing into her. She had to grab onto something, anything. April stretched her arms out hoping they would collide with a railing or car to hold onto to.

Her eyes were closed and stinging from the coolness of the water. Eventually she crashed onto her stomach, colliding with a something hard and solid, unmoving. She opened her eyes and saw a large white plumbing van, the front mounted onto the roof of another car. Her face was pressed against the grill. She saw the van was elevated well above the water, it would be perfect cover for her and Lexie. With that April slowly pulled Lexie near her so her arm was gripped firmly around her waist. With her other hand she gripped the metal bar attached to the grill and pulled herself up so that she was faced flat on the hood. She pulled Lexie onto the hood and now only her legs were submerged in the water. She lay there for what felt like forever, unable to move. Her breath was slow and shallow and her body felt tightly wound as a drum, tensed and worn.

After moments of rest she pulled her legs up and pushed Lexie up higher onto the roof and placed her own feet on the hood. Her head felt as though it was splitting in half from the pain and the swishing of the water was blatantly drowned out by the loud ringing in her ears.

The water was now about a meter below them and April felt slightly safe for now. April positioned Lexie so that she was sat against the wall and not able to fall off. Despite her own warnings that falling asleep in an open danger zone she lay her head down on the roof, exhaustion taking over and her eyelids slowly drifting closed.

Lexie groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. They along with the rest of her body felt like a dead-weight, heavy and aching. Her head was the worst, white flashes came before her. Light poured through and she saw, instead of fuzzy grey shapes, the images sharpened to show sparks of electricity emanating from broken cables, dark grey walls and burst pipes slanting from the high ceiling. She tried to lift her head but was unable as at the slightest elevation the images before her blurred and swirled and the muscles in her neck spasmed.

Lexie deciding it to be a lost cause dropped her head onto the solid, smooth landing she felt below and slowly twisted her head to the left. She saw what looked like the lifeless form of her friend April Kepner. Panic set in. She remembered. The cars, the people, the tunnel and the water that flooded it. She remembered April and Arizona helping the woman with the terrified children. What had happened to her? What had happened since then? She had to get April up.

Keeping her back to the ground or car as she noticed she moved her arm up, grunting in pain. She shook April a little, trying to wake her to no avail. She shook her again but harder. "Ugh!" April grunted in pain, her arm twitching a little. "April" Lexie gasped, her voice hoarse, "April" she said a little louder. April lifted her head up slightly and opened her eyes in confusion. She stared at Lexie, her eyes bearing into her for a moment.

She snapped up, lifting herself onto her arms, her faced scrunched up at this in obvious pain. "Lexie?" she mumbled in shock, looking down at her with now wide open eyes "Your okay?" she said in disbelief. Lexie let out a small laugh at her question "A little" she mused "But I can't really move" she then added. April repositioned herself to sit on the roof of the car and looked down at her with a massive smile of relief "The fact you're even awake..." she spoke "You got hit on the head by a falling pipe". Lexie rolled her eyes and sighed "Well that explains it" she replied. April laughed at this.

April couldn't believe Lexie was awake. She felt tears spring to her eyes but pushed them back not wanting to stress Lexie further. This was the first good thing to happen all day she decided. At least she knew Lexie was well enough to be awake from such a hard hit and display a leveled sense of humour. Then it struck her. The others. They were missing and she was here with Lexie, without them. "April?" Lexie whispered from below. April looked down at Lexie, she looked bad, her face was covered in blood from the head wound and she looked as dazed and exhausted as she felt.

"Where's Arizona and everyone?" she asked, April felt her heart sink. She didn't know, so what would she tell Lexie. She knew she had to get her out of here before she became weaker and died from hypothermia. But their friends were down here dead or dying and she wanted to find them. April looked up hoping for an answer written on the walls and saw something she didn't expect, how had she not noticed it sooner? Not far up above them, April saw what looked like a circled metal grate. A vent? she wondered, curious. "April?".

Lexie continued waiting for an answer. The older surgeon looked down at her "I'm not sure. I think she left with Mark" April lied. "Mark?" Lexie's face widened, April looked away "Yeah, I think she left with him" she repeated to Lexie, her heart wrenching in fear and guilt. She saw Lexie's face relax in relief and felt shame and guilt for the fact she lied to one of her best friends. Though saving Lexie's life came first, even if she eternally hated her afterward. She could live with that.

April pointed up to the vent above them and Lexie followed with her eyes "See that?" April asked, "Yeah" replied Lexie. April kept staring "I think that's a vent. That might be our only way out, think you can crawl through it?" April continued. Lexie's face turned uncertain and fearful "I-I don't know" Lexie replied truthly "I can barely move". At this April gritted her teeth nervously, Lexie sighed, "But I don't think we have any other choice" she said pointing weakly out to the fast flowing river cascading down the tunnel. April nodded

With that April stood up, spreading both her legs so she had a firm stand on the roof of the car before nodding to Lexie "You ready?". Lexie nodded in reply. April bent down and placing one arm behind her back and under her legs and pulling her up over her shoulders. April grunted and stumbled back slightly before hunching forward, regaining her balance.

Lexie shifted uncomfortably before reaching for the metal grate and seeing it was loose, pulled it off and threw it down quickly. Keeping weight off April who was struggling to carry a weight similar to her own while close to collapsing. "God, your strong Kepner" Lexie said astonished. "I'm a farm labourer" she joked and Lexie laughed back at the light attempt at humour on the fact she grew up in a farm. Lexie grabbed onto the ledge which was wide enough April thought thankfully for Lexie to fit through and watched until her feet disappeared from the edge. "April?" she heard the echoed voice of Lexie, "I'm coming " April assured before grabbing at the ledge and pulling herself up.

She couldn't look ahead of her as the small, narrow tunnel was pitch black and she couldn't see anything. The only assurance was the quiet swishing of water and shuffling of Lexie's feet that assured here she was there and conscious.


	3. Chapter 3

"Aghh!" Robert gasped as he bobbed his head above the surface of the water. He thrashed his arms and legs out violently to keep himself afloat. The strong current of the water and the flying debris from the disintegrating walls and ceiling hitting him. He shook his head trying to dispel some of the water which splashed onto him.

Robert looked around for a sign of his friends, the last wave was strong and forceful so that he had lost Mark and Arizona in the struggle to stay up. "Robert!" he heard a strong male voice call out to him from above, Robert craned his neck to look above him. And there he saw Mark Sloan perched over the edge of a large slab of stone which had fallen from the ceiling, still attached and slanting downward onto an upturned car. Mark extended his hand out to Robert, motioning for him to grab it "Take my hand. Come on" he said waving his hand.

Robert waved his arms, pushing himself towards the car the slab sat on. With his left hand he gripped the edge of the slab and his hand began to burn, he lifted it to see a slice on his palm with blood oozing from it and the stone stained red. He gripped it again quickly regardless of the sharp edge so as to keep from being carried away by the current. With his right hand he clasped Mark Sloan's hand in his own and positioned his feet on the handle of the car door below him. Slowly he edged himself onto the slab, Mark gripped his arm around Robert's waist pulling up and out of danger.

He sat himself up, looking behind him he saw Arizona as she lay completely still on the slab. Her blonde hair was matted to her hair by blood and water, her face looked gaunt and sickly and as he inspected her he also saw a large pool of blood around her abdomen. Arizona had to be taken out sooner rather than later. Robert looked back at Mark with a look of gratitude displayed on his face "Thank you Doctor Sloan" he said breathlessly. Mark shrugged and waved his hand "No problem" he laughed "Oh and by the way you've saved my life, I think that puts us on a first-name-basis don't you, Robert?" . Robert smiled and shrugged "Okay. Mark" he said a little awkwardly.

Robert and Mark both got unsteadily to their feet, "Have you seen April and Lexie?" Robert questioned. At this Mark looked away in worry and frustration "No" he stated. "No?" Robert replied in surprise "Well what'd we do? We have to find them" he said. Mark shrugged again "I don't know, I mean we need to get Arizona out of here. Like now" he added, "We cant just leave them down here" Robert shouted.

Mark glared at him "I know, believe me I know. You think I wanna leave them down here. I love Lexie and I like Kepner but for all we know she's already found a way out. Arizona is here and she needs help and we can give her it". Robert gritted his teeth, he knew Mark was telling the truth and he was right, for all they knew April had figured a way out and it would be a suicide mission to attempt to go back. Especially for Arizona, who was slipping away before their very eyes. Robert conceded defeat and looked up, there was a wide opening, a vent or miniature tunnel of some sort, it could be their way out.

He pointed upward to show Mark "Mark, look" he said motioning to the opening, "What is that ?" he asked. "I think it might be another tunnel, maybe a way out?" he hinted to Mark. Mark stared at the tunnel and then at Arizona and frowned "Looks like the only option, think we can fit through that?". Robert nodded "Yeah", Mark nodded assured "Well then lets go, no time to waste" he grunted. They both reached down to pick up Arizona of the floor and leaned against the slab of stone, climbing up to the opening.

-April felt the air thick and heavy around her as they made their way through the small, narrow tunnel that held their only hope of survival. As they crawled through April could hear the creaking and clacking of metal and dripping of water more clearly than before. The air was humid and she could hardly breathe. She worried constantly about Lexie in front of her, her breathing was quick and shallow as though she was struggling greatly to retrieve air and she was grunting constantly in pain as she shuffled down the dark tunnel.

It felt like they had been moving for hours and April was feeling everything press down on her, especially the guilt. She couldn't help but think about Mark, Robert and Arizona. Even though she knew helping lexie out was the right thing, the practical thing she still felt the gut-wrenching guilt she felt at leaving them behind. "April?" Lexie whispered hoarsely, April grunted in response, broken from her hazardous thoughts "Yeah?" she whispered. Lexie stayed silent for a moment until April nudged her leg "I think I see light" she replied. April laughed "You sure?" , "Yeah" Lexie almost shouted happily. April had been worried that they were never going to get out of the dank tunnel, it seemed to go on forever. By the excitement in Lexie's voice she felt the same way.

As they continued April could see what Lexie meant, she saw what seemed light a piercing bright light shine past Lexie's form straight into her eyes, burning them. Suddenly Lexie fell forward and dropped below April's line of vision and she felt a familiar fear and panic set in. "Ouch" came Lexie's disgruntled voice, April sighed, relieved. As she moved forward she saw the light grow bigger and it took a minute or so for her eyes to adjust. She reached the edge of the tunnel and saw before her, a small platform lower down which she placed her hands on and fell to the ground with a thump.

She opened her eyes after recovering from her aching muscles and saw Lexie lying flat on the ground, eyes closed and breathing deeply. April did the same, the air here was still humid, but slightly less so and the light she saw was a dim yellow colour radiating from a dirty yellow wall light. "You okay?" April suggested, Lexie sighed "Better now, that tunnel was unbearable". April sat herself up against a wall and looked around. The area they sat on now was instead of small as first imagined, was a large circular room and the opening in which they exited a meter wide steel door.

To the left she saw a black metal ladder attached to the wall, which when she looked up followed up what looked like a hundred yard length wall. A wall that looked similar to the one the surgeons had entered in the first place. Freedom. "Lexie" April mused, "Hmm" came her reply, unable to muster a more appropriate response. "I think I found a way outta here".

-Mark couldn't believe the day he had had. The crap weather had already brought his mood down, but the real live surgeon survival game going on in the tunnel was beyond insane. He had never been part of anything so dangerous or extreme besides the shooting last year, but this was a whole different ball game. The good part, he thought optimistically was that when Sofia was old enough he and Arizona would have a kick-ass story to tell.

There was also the unforeseen …bonding, if you could call it that between him and Stark, sorry Robert. Robert had saved his life and shown level-headedness in the dangerous climate of the tunnel by staying with him to help with Arizona and Lexie. He was by his actions today, opposite to the remarks of his character made by Karev and others, including himself. He was starting to see a little of the nice side of Stark that April had commented on.

The broken ceiling had provided the three older surgeons an escape from the crumbling tunnel, but since the new tunnel they had embarked upon was a smaller part of a system of tunnels, beside the big tunnel their safety was by no means guaranteed. Mark felt the blood rush to his face and beads of sweat drip down his forehead. The air was thicker, denser. He looked to his side and saw Robert huffing and grunting as he kept his body moving forward in pace with Mark's. Mark thought for someone like Robert who was considerable older, late forties, early fifties, he had good fitness. But then again survival was a good motivator.

The tunnel was different to the motorway, where the tunnel was a large circular shape like a chocolate log, this tunnel was more rectangular and lower. The tunnel was also long, it seemed as though it may never end. Mark thought a distraction from the doom and gloom of things would help keep going. "So" he started "Tell me about yourself" he said to Robert. Robert looked over at him quizzically "Like what?" he replied. Mark frowned "Like…for example. I'm Mark Sloan, father of Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres, who I share with Arizona and Callie. I have no siblings and I like rock music, I don't know". Robert stared for a moment and then looked forward "Okay.." he laughed, amused "My name is Robert Jonathon Stark. I have three younger brothers, no wife, no kids, no dog. And I too like rock music, preferable the Stones". Mark shrugged "The Stones are good" he agreed.

They continued with mindless banter until they came to an end, where a ladder stood in front leading up to an opening far above them. They both looked up, the climb would be hard. "Okaayy..how do we get Arizona up, I can barely walk now" said Mark, exhausted.

Robert looked pensive for a moment, thinking of a plan. "I know" Robert stated taking off his belt, Mark laughed nervously "Hey..woah, what are you doing? There's no need to strip". Robert scowled at him "I am not stripping. The belt's pretty lengthy, you could tie it around me and Arizona and I'll carry her up so you don't have to", Mark raised his eyebrows "Will that work. Do you have the strength to?" he quizzed. Robert nodded.

He would have to, Mark was right he could barely stand "You could stay below so that if the belt did break you can still catch her" he reasoned. Mark nodded in agreement and took the belt from Stark, wrapping it around them both, buckling it and tying it to ensure it wouldn't snap. "Okay" Robert sighed before gripping the bar and climbing up the ladder rungs slowly and carefully, one slip by him would cost them all.

-"April, is that thing safe?" Lexie asked, her face showing concern. April looked at her confused, Lexie shrugged "I mean is it-it going to come loose or snap or fall, or something?". April walked over to the ladder and pulled at it firmly to test its strength. When it didn't budge April looked at Lexie "Satisfied?" she asked, Lexie shuddered.

April looked at Lexie worriedly, her eyes were rolling to the back of her head, slipping into unconsciousness "Lexie?" April shouted down at her. When she got no response she walked over and bent down to Lexie's form, she shook her vigorously with no response. "Damn it!" April yelled to the room, anger and worry eating at her.

As she yelled she felt herself quickly turn very light-headed and shake violently, a sharp pain ran up her leg. "Ouch" she whispered, falling backwards against the wall. She pulled her trouser leg up and was surprised by what she saw. Her leg had a large gash down the length of it. Blood pulsated from the wound and the skin surrounding it had turned pale blue with dark blue vein-like bruises proceeding from the wound outwards.

April leaned her head against the wall in exasperation. This was all she needed, now not only was Lexie seriously injured, she faced hypothermia from a gushing leg wound she only now realized she had. Whether her mind with this new knowledge made her feel ill she could feel the cold seeping through her, if she didn't leave now both of them wouldn't make it out, she was now worried for herself but she didn't want to be the reason Lexie died also.

With that April stood up and walked shakily over to Lexie. She placed both her arms under Lexie's and gripped her tightly to her, carrying her over to the ladder. This was going to be tough. Before she took the first step on the rung April heard the vigorous swishing of water around her and look at the steel doors.

After a moment she saw what she had unwillingly expected and saw water pouring from the tunnel rapidly, pooling around her feet as before when she had first entered the scene. April without another thought pulled Lexie up and placed her feet on the rungs and quickly grabbed onto the rung above her head. She continued this action quickly so that she moved further up above the water that was swirling down below, moving higher and higher threatening to swallow them. April in this time of hurrying felt the pressure of time constraint and the physical exhaustions of her pain and Lexie's unconscious form as she hauled her up the long tunnel.

-Robert felt as though he was stuck in a nightmare he couldn't escape. Every new corner or area reached brought a new obstacle to overcome. Now Mark, Arizona and himself had made their way out of the tunnel and through a series of smaller ones.

It was one foot in front of the other to him, that's what kept him going. Now he had a good friend and colleague who needed his help, which concluded of him to climb up what seemed like a never ending ladder and reach an area of sanctuary, safety. He wondered if this whole ordeal would end like the usual inescapable nightmare where they almost reached the top and then it stopped, they never made it. He hoped that wasn't the case.

Robert looked up in difficulty. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear. He could hear…sirens. He was sure. Robert stopped and looked down "Mark!" he shouted. He heard a clang of metal and then Mark's voice distant voice shout "Yeah?". "I think I can hear something above" he said, "Like water or something?" he asked curiously. Robert grunted a he reached for the next rung, he was almost there "No. Sirens..I think" he replied, he heard a shrill laugh behind him.

Sirens. Robert thought he heard a siren, which was good Mark thought. They were close, almost safe. Not long after Mark also heard the sirens, and the wind, civilization. He looked up and saw a pair of hands above Robert's head grab his jacket and pull him and Arizona up out of the tunnel. He knew he had only a little space between him and the top of the ladder, he could see the rain belting down and spittle's of it hitting him in the face.

As he reached the top he felt a strong pair of arms pull him up, over the top and the cool, fresh air enveloped him. He felt himself being pulled along the ground and laid gently on the solid concrete, his eyes were closed. "Sir. Sir. Are you okay?" said a gravely male voice. Mark lay there, unable to move "Yes" he breathed deeply.

'Arizona' he thought suddenly and looked up, lying up on his elbows so he could look around. He glanced up and saw a man dressed in Police Uniform looking back at him. "My friends?" Mark said dazed, he felt weak now, tired. The man moved to the left and pointed behind were he had stood and he saw Arizona strapped to a gurney and loaded into an Ambulance, while Robert sat against a concrete wall with his hands resting on his knees. A Paramedic sat next to him, saying something inaudible, watching him.

"Come on up" said the officer who stood beside Mark, his hand held out for him to take. Mark grabbed his hand and felt his weighted body struggle to move to which the officer put a hand on his back, forcing him up. Mark wobbled over to Robert and held out his hand like the officer had done to him. "Are you coming in the Ambulance?" he said.

Robert nodded taking his hand while laying one against the wall and pulling himself up. Mark made his way into the Ambulance and Robert followed behind him, they both sat down on the seats and watched as the officer slammed shut the doors of the Ambulance.

-April was struggling to breathe again, heaving in breathes as her throat constricted in exhaustion and panic. Panic as the water swiveled around her shins and pierced the wound on her leg, causing it to burn in pain and her head to pound. The further up she moved the more her head pounded and her breath hitched, Lexie's weight coupled with her exhaustion was making the climb unbearable and she had moments when she felt her grip loosen and Lexie almost slip from her grasp.

Sweat was pouring off of her and her grip on the ladder rungs above her where shaky at best. But April could see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. A small light, but a light none the less, which meant vans or street lights and people nearby. April scrunched up her face as she reached in absolute pain for the next rung, only a few meters to go and she and Lexie would be safe.

As she reached the final rung she pulled with all her might and shifted her body and Lexie's onto the platform beside her. They were on flat ground but April kept kicking her legs to move further away from the tunnel and stretched her body out on the ground. She was out and the water which fell on her face was not the rapid motion of waves but the patter of raindrops. Her head was laid on the ground and turned it so her cheek was pressed against the gravel.

There she saw only yards away two ambulances and a police car. As she watched the Police car pulled away and she felt her heart race, what if they all left without them. April rolled onto her stomach and forced herself to get to her feet before stumbling over to the police car and push past the ambulance door "Please-" she breathed out "I need help…my friend-friend, she.." she cut off unable to speak.

A man dressed in blue uniform, a Paramedic rushed over to her "Hey, your friend. Where is she?" he said. April out of breath waved her arm behind her. The man nodded "Okay. We'll attend to your friend. You get in the ambulance and wait for us" he spoke calmly before sliding past her to run to Lexie with another Paramedic.

Another man dressed in black uniform, A police Officer led her inside the ambulance and sat her down "How are you?" he asked, watching her. April looked up and gave a half-hearted smile "I'll be fine" she replied and nodded in thanks. He grabbed a blanket behind her and placed it over her shoulders and she welcomed the warmth it gave her.

The officer stepped out of the ambulance and the Paramedics returned with Lexie strapped to a stretcher, placing her in the ambulance. As soon as the doors closed the Ambulance took off and the Paramedics set to work on helping clean Lexie's wound.

-As soon as the ambulance stopped, signaling the arrival of their destination: Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Mark waited anxiously as the ambulance door opened and he and Robert jumped out of the vehicle. The Paramedics carried the gurney out of the vehicle rattling off the poor condition Arizona was in.

"Oh my God!" Mark heard the shrieking female voice he so recognized as Callie Torres. Mark turned to Callie to see her clinging to the gurney, her face inched from Arizona's whispering in her ear that she was here, that she was going to be okay. "Callie. We need examine her" came Bailey's stern voice "We can't do that if you cling to the gurney like a magnet, we need in there".

Mark called after her and she unwillingly wrenched herself from Arizona's side, a look of impending fury etched on her face. "What the hell happened to her?" she shouted up at him. Mark stood silent, stuck for how to explain what had happened without Callie freaking out even more.

Robert saw the anger in Callie's eyes as she glared at Mark. He stood there speechless with eyes of guilt and despair. Probably at how he hadn't been able to help Arizona more and what it did to his best friend.

-Robert watched and felt compelled to help him. "Doctor Torres, Arizona was hurt when a part of the ceiling collapsed; everyone was pulled off their feet. There was nothing we could do to stop it. Mark did everything he could to get her out of there, he saved her" he said firmly to Callie, giving her his most trustworthy and sincere look. Callie stared at him for a moment with dark eyes and he was almost sure she was going to attack him, but instead she released a breath and looked at Mark, tears running down her cheeks.

She nodded at Robert "Thank you" she said smiling lightly at both of them. Mark opened his arms to hug her and she stepped into them, clinging onto him for support. "Sorry" she muttered to Mark, "Don't be" he replied quietly "You're just worried is all". They continued to hug and Robert began to slip away undetected but noticed Mark mouthing a silent thank you to him as he left, he nodded in return and walked inside.

They followed soon after him and they all sat down at the foyer until the others ran up to them. Christina spoke up first, a sincere smile gracing her face that Robert had never seen before "You're okay" she stated, "Yes. You too" Robert replied. Robert noticed Alex Karev in the background and gave him a small wave "Karev, good to see you're okay" , Alex looked back a little surprised "You too…Sir".

-Christina knew if the situation were not so serious to have a friend badly injured and two more missing, she and Meredith would have laughed at the awkward and unusual sentimental moment between evil spawn Alex and cold-hearted Stark. She couldn't though because the fact that even these two were happy to see each other reminded her of the dangers faced tonight. She looked at Stark and saw his left hand covered red in blood. She raised her hand to get his attention "Doctor Stark, you're bleeding" she noted pointing at his hand.

He raised his hand at this and shrugged "Oh, right. Forgot" he said non-chalantly "I'll clean this up" he said walking past the group and into a supply closet across the foyer. As he did this there was a yell from outside as two paramedics rushed in with a patient whose head was covered in blood. "Young female, twenty-eight years old. Suffered minor cerebral contusion to the frontal lobe, found unconscious at the scene" the male Paramedic rattled off and the group immediately noticed behind the Paramedics was their friend April Kepner, stumbling along the corridor behind them.

As Christina saw her she felt happy to realize she was no longer missing but then who was on the gurney. The group closed in towards April and peeked over the Paramedics shoulder to see the unconscious Lexie Grey lying haphazardly on the bed. Meredith gasped beside her and Jackson tried to reach the bed but was stopped by the Chief who insisted he let him and Derek take care of her before they rushed off.

As everyone stared at the passing gurney Christina looked back to see what appeared to be a deathly pale looking April leaning against the counter, her head buried in her arms. Christina walked over to her and placed her hand on the younger surgeon's shoulder "April" she soothed. April looked up and she saw her face was thin and sickly looking. April attempted to say something but all Christina hard was a garbled moan escaping her lips. Christina became worried at this "April?" she repeated. April looked at Christina with wide eyes which then rolled back and she fell forward, ramming into Christina who grabbed her small frame before she could hit the ground "Help!" she shouted.

At this everyone turned around and seeing April collapse, jumped to Christina's aid. Jackson pulled April into his arms and lowered her onto a gurney quickly supplied by Meredith and Teddy. "What's wrong with her?" Meredith exclaimed.

Teddy noticing the blood mark on April's trouser leg, pulled the clothing up slowly to reveal a largely infected wound. Everyone gasped at the discoloured leg of their friend. Teddy placed the back of her hand on April's forehead "Fever" she muttered before grabbing the stethoscope from around her neck, putting the ear piece in her ears and placing the circled part of the equipment on April's upper chest "Elevated heart rate".

Teddy looked April over, inspecting her "Her wounds septic. Yang?". Christina lifted her head to look at Teddy "I need a drip of heated I.V. fluids and a course of antibiotics. Now!" she barked and Christina ran to find the treatment.

-Robert finished wrapping up his hand carefully with the sterile bandages laid before him. His hand was clean and uninfected and he was thankful. It could have been a lot worse, he could have harnessed a more serious injury or the wound on his hand could have gone septic or hypothermic with all the jumping in and out of the water.

As he was finished he put away the remaining untouched bandages and walked out into the main foyer. Just as he did he saw the group of consisting of Teddy, Christina, Meredith and Jackson whom he had left minutes ago rush through the corridor with a gurney in front. He had been unable to see who was on it, probably another survivor he thought.

He noticed Callie, Mark and Alex left standing in the waiting area, their faces unsettled and scared again. He walked over to them, placing his hands on the back of a lounge chair "Who was that the others took in?" he asked curious. Alex stood forward, his expression uneasy "April and Lexie are back" he stated, Robert perked his head up at this "They're okay?" he questioned in surprise.

Alex shook his head "No. Lexie's got a contusion and April had a wound on her leg. Its gone septic. The others are taking care of 'em now" he said in a gruff voice. Robert couldn't speak, instead he just sat down and Mark, Callie and Alex seeing him followed suit. They all waited in the Lobby in silence as they waited for news.


	4. Chapter 4

-Bailey looked down at the frail, unconscious form of Arizona Robbins lying on the operating table of the OR room. The loud, hyperactive, child-like behavior was nowhere to be seen, instead all she saw was the hurt and pain and helplessness that radiated from the figure below her. She felt her heart lurch at the sight.

In the beginning Bailey had felt resentment for the blonde surgeon, for what she had seen as a level of incompetent care for the young boy, Jackson. Now, she saw the caring and compassion she gave to all her patients and to her friends and family, like Callie and Sophia and even Mark. Bailey looked around the OR, she was all alone with Arizona and for this moment she was thankful.

She bent down next to Arizona's ear so she could whisper quietly to her "Listen, I know you're in alot of pain right now. I know you're tired but you need to hold on just a little bit longer". At the last word Bailey saw heard a low noise come from Arizona and she stood up, inspecting her. Arizona was awake.

Her eyes fluttered open a little "Ba-bail- Bailey?" Arizona stuttered. Bailey's eyes widened at the response "Arizona?Oh my god" she said in surprise. She saw Arizona's eyes begin to close and her chest rising and falling rapidly in distress "Arizona" Bailey soothed gripping the woman's hand "You are going to be fine, okay. I will not let anything happen to you, I've lost too many Doctors in this hospital already". Arizona blinked her eyes slowly, unable to move much and a tear escaped her eyes, showing she understood.

Bailey gave her the best reassuring smile she could muster "You have a family that needs you and friends that care about you. You had better not die on me" she laughed, trying to add a little humour to the situation.

-Arizona couldn't keep track of anything. She couldn't stay awake long enough to fathom what was happening, even then she could only hear bits and pieces, water running and splashing. All she knew was she had the most excrutiating pain running through her body, enveloping her.

Now all she heard was silence. Dead silence. Maybe that was it, maybe she was dead and she was stuck like this. She lay, unable to discern or think or move and then she heard a soothing female voice, not Callie, not April, deeper. 'Bailey' she thought surely. She was telling her that she had to hold on but Arizona wasn't sure she could.

Arizona wanted to try, to let her know she was still fighting but she couldn't move her arms or legs at all. She tried in desperation to open her eyes, they felt heavy, but she tried again managing to open them a fracture and the light came spilling in, burning her pupils. She heard the surprise in the womans voice as she called her name, she knew she was trying. Arizona couldn't hear the rest, all her energy went into opening her leaded eyelids and all she heard next was the talk of family that needed her.

Her mind went immediately to Callie and Sophia, the two loves of her life, the people she couldn't live without. The two beautiful Latina's faces swirled in her mind. She thought of her parents, the pain she knew they would be theirs if they were to lose their oldest and last remaining child to a voilent and painful capacity just as their son had endured.

And she finally thought of Mark, she knew if she was here he and Robert were alive, surely. She knew Mark had risked everything to save her because he cared as she now did for him, and he had promised Callie.

Her eyes now adjusted to the light saw the worried face of Doctor Bailey hovering above her. The weight pressing down on Arizona became too much and she felt herself being pulled back into the darkness, away from reality.

-Derek sighed as he pulled off the latex gloves and threw them into the coloured bin. It had been a long day and although he was surrounded by the pain and suffering and serious injuries of his friends and family like Lexie, Arizona and April he felt himself lucky and grateful.

Meredith was safe and unharmed and so were many of their friends and depite the seriousness and risk of the others injuries, they were still alive to say the least. He had just finished operating on Lexie Grey, his sister-in-law. She had suffered a minor contusion to the frontal lobe and her brain had started to swell. However she had been saved by a simple burgh hole to each side of the head and the swelling had immediatley gone down.

Derek felt his mood lift some as he knew he had made a difference in helping his family and hoped Meredith would feel better as a result. The Chief walked out of the OR and into the scrub room, taking off his apron and gloves and followed Derek by scrubbing his hands clean of the crimson-red blood from Lexie's wounds.

Chief looked across at Derek "She should be okay. We'll keep her in ICU for a couple of days to keep an eye on her and make sure there's no brain bleeds or elevated intracranial pressure", Derek nodded and walked out of the room.

-Teddy ran forward, pushing the wheeled gurney in the direction of the elevator. They had a limited amount of time to save April from her infected wounds. Having been caught so late on the risks were more complicated. not only had the wound gone septic but the infection had spread down her blood vessels.

They could reverse the damage with the heated I.V. fluids to increase blood flow but if the damage was too severe then the limb may have to be amputated. Even worse was the systemic organ failure or damage to organs like the brain or heart to cause brain damage or death. She knew by the ascension of the infection that April had cut her leg, maybe one or two hours before and had probably been too invested in helping Lexie and getting out to worry about her cut.

Teddy thought as she wheeled April down to an OR that she didnt really know her that well and only according to everyone as the rather annoying Chief Resident. However, she saw as she stood in the elevator with Meredith, Jackson and Christina who were silent and footering nervous and impatient, that April was more to them than they let on. She was a colleague, a close friend despite her hyperactive tendancies.

Meredith gave a worried glance in Teddy's direction and looking her straight in the eye. "The antibiotics and heated fluids have been administered. Will it make a difference at this stage?" she said.

Teddy looked down to the infected leg, the inflammation had decreased slightly "They've decreased the inflammation a little but the wound is still largely infected and her heart rate is still eratic. We need to cut out the infected tissue on the surface and administer methylprednisolone to stimulate the lungs and increase oxygen input" Teddy directed. Meredith nodded as the elevator doors opened and the four pushed the bed out and into an OR.

-Chief and Derek walked out of the Emergency room corridor and into the foyer where they expected to see the surgeons of Seattle Grace, sitting or pacing the area in anticipation of their friends diagnoses. Instead they saw the foyer was filled now with the relatives of missing or injured people from the tunnel accident.

Derek eyed the Chief "Where is everyone?", the Chief shrugged in return, confused "I dont know. I was in th OR with you". With that they turned around and headed back through the corridors to search for the other surgeons. As they reached the end of the corridor they saw Mark and Callie holding clipboards and talking to interns.

"Chief. Derek" Mark said as they approached "How is Lexie?" he asked anxiously. Derek sighed "She's okay. I was able to reduce the swelling and she is being sent to ICU for monitoring" Mark sighed in relief at this news and Callie did too.

"Where is everyone?" Derek continued, "Arizona's in surgery with Bailey and Owen. April got taken to OR three with Teddy, Meredith Jackson and Christina" Callie informed. "Robert is perfoming an emergency surgery on a kid in an emergency room with Alex, there was no OR's left" Mark said pointing to the windowed room on the left with the blinds half drawn.

Chief twisted his face in confusion "Why is April being operated on?", Callie looked at him "Kepner collapsed into Christina. They found a bad wound on her leg that's infected, it was septic". Derek shoved his hands through his already mishevelled hair "My God. This whole day has been a disaster. Is she going to be okay?", Callie and Mark shrugged.

-Owen had seen some extremely severe injuries and situations as a Trauma surgeon in Iraq. So he didn't flinch to see the trauma inflicted on Arizona Robbins, he did, however, feel a little more nervous and emotional to be operating on his friend of two years.

He had came to Seattle Grace around the same time as Arizona and she also could somehow relate to life in the military, as a result they had became quite friendly. Seeing her now, fragile and helpless on the operating table was upsetting to him. It also motivated him to do his best, he wanted to desperately save her, she had her family with Callie, Sophia and Mark to continue.

They had moved forward with an emergency Laparotomy and transfusion as Arizona's scans had shown internal bleeding of the spleen and severe blood loss. Owen had considered Arizona lucky somewhat as the bleeding associated with the tear in her abdomen should have led her to bleed out much faster than she had. She was a fighter.

Owen made an incision and Bailey shouted out in alarm as a stream of blood spurted out of the incision on her insides "We've got a bleeder, a big one here" said Bailey, who quickly tried to mop up the blood flowing through Arizona's insides and over her skin, onto the floor. "Damn it!" shouted Owen as he ploughed his hands through Arizona's insides and tried to find the point of the incision and stop the bleeding.

The heart monitor attached to Arizona began to beep wildly and the numbers began to change in quick succession. "She's flatlining!" shouted an OR nurse and Owen looked up to see the yellow line on the screen slowly move down and become flat. Beside him owen could hear Bailey's hurried whispers of protest "No, no, no" she mused and pressed her fingers into the overflow of blood. Owen motioned to a Doctor behind him "Get me the paddles" he said. As the doctor pushed the crash cart to him and he grabbed the paddles "Charge 100" he ordered and placed the paddles to Arizona's chest. Her body shook as the electric charge shot through her like a lightening bolt, on the screen the line still sat straight showing no change.

Bailey shook her head and pressed harder onto the incision "I told you not to die on me Robbins". "Again" Owen boomed and repeated the action, Arizona's body shooting up off of the table and slamming back down. In the background he heard a faint beeping sound less alarming than the flatline on the screen, he then saw Arizona's chest rise and fall.

The nurse laughed "There's a rhythme. Heart rate eighty and rising". Both Owen and Bailey breathed a sigh of relief, Owen looked down at the open incision and saw the bleeding had stopped. He smiled "Good job Bailey, you stopped the bleeding". Bailey looked at him "Next time don't be so damn careless. Now stitch up the wound so we can close her up and get her to ICU".

-Meredith felt her breathe hitch as she stopped inside the OR. They had had to rush there as April had started having a fit and shaking uncontrollably. Meredith struggled to put on her latex sterile gloves and get inside.

Through the window to the OR she could see Jackson and Christina holding April still as she struggled to breathe and jerked around on the table. Beside them Teddy was putting in a central line to inject the Methylprednisolone to improve her oxygen intake and an anethesiologist was putting her under anesthesia to perform surgery.

By the time Meredith had put on her apron, gloves and mask April was lying completely unconscious on the operating table. Jackson and Christina had left to get scrubbed in also. Meredith walked over to Teddy who was looking over April's tainted leg. "Hey, do you think April will be okay?" Meredith asked quietly. Teddy looked up to see Meredith staring at her, waiting for an answer. She shrugged "I don't know" she answered truthly "I mean It looks bad, the infection. She's convulsing and most of the work doesn't just depend on the surgery to remove infected tissue. It depends on how well her immune system is, if she responds well to the drugs and antibiotics".

Meredith felt sorry for April, she didn't deserve to be in such a bad life-threatening situation and neither did Lexie or Arizona. She knew April was only tryin to help, saving Lexie, and now she could possibly die for it. "So only time will tell" said Meredith to Teddy, her eyes still trained on the younger resident. She placed her face inches from April's. "April... April. I know you think that we all think of you as one huge pain in the ass, which is true" she added with a small laugh "But we think one you as one of us and we wan't you to stay alive. Besides Lexie's gonna wanna thank you".

Meredith stood back up and saw Teddy giving her a sympathetic look and then Jackson and Christina walked back into the room. Teddy picked up an instrument and looked around "Alright team, let's get to work".


	5. Chapter 5

Robert felt a small feeling of acomplishment and relief lift his darkened mood as the nurses wheeled out the patient from the Emergency room. He had just finished operating on a young boy of a boy about ten years old with severe abdominal slashes and a serious head injury. The boy had bad internal bleeding which thanks to the steady hands of Alex Karev had managed to be controlled.

Robert knew with close monitoring and recuperation the boy would fully recover and it would be slow and painful, but at least he was alive to try. Robert looked over to see Karev, hands shaking and struggling to pull off his latex glove covered in the boys blood. The older surgeon walked over to him slowly and slipped the gloves off his shaking hands. "Thanks" he said with his eyes trained on the ground, refusing to meet Robert's gaze as though ashamed. Robert felt sorry for him, he could see the whole incident of the tunnel and the infliction on his friends had rattled him.

"It's been a long, hard day" he said sighing "It's okay to be tired. Afraid" he added. "Not when they're like they are" Alex shot back at Stark, his hand gesturing to the injured and dazed people in the ER floor on the beds and gurneys. Robert also felt that Alex's comment carried an undertone of mentioning their friends who were somewhere in the hospital fighting for their lives.

Robert nodded showing he understood "I know you're worried about Lexie, Arizona and April but they're all fighters. The way they held on in the tunnel is proof enough. I don't know Lexie well enough but I think I know Arizona and April well enough by now to know that despite their perky, casual demeanor that they are made of tougher stuff". Alex chuckled at this "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks" he replied before walking out side-by-side with Robert to find the other surgeons.

-Mark had stayed with Callie every second since they had reunited, not wanting to leave her side incase she decided to breakdown completely out of fear for Arizona's life. Mark had somehow convinced his best friend to kepp busy, to focus on the job as they had both decided that waiting would be worse and the time would pass much quicker if they kept themselves busy and helping other people.

It had worked, a little, as Callie became engrossed in a multiple fracture from a man who had been compounded by a concrete block from the tunnel wall. Mark knew that when Callie wanted distraction she would throw herself head first into work, but despite this he still saw Callie's constant glances up at the wall clock. He couldn't blame her, hell, he empathized with her because he knew that Lexie was in similar condition, albeit not nearly as critical but still bad.

After several gruntled yells and moans of pain Callie and Mark had finished setting the bones of the injured man and had discharged him to another area of the hospital for recovery. They walked back down the OR corridor they had seen Derek and The Chief and appeared just in time to see Arizona being wheeled out of one of the OR one, looking weak and fragile as Mark had ever seen her.

"Arizona!" came the startled gasp beside him as Callie rushed over to bed the blonde surgeon lay on. Mark followed behind and watched as Callie fretted over Arizona's small frame, inspecting her and Mark looked at Bailey and Owen.

"Is she okay?Oh my God!"

"Callie?"

"She looks terrible. Did the surgery go well?"

"-Callie?" Bailey cut in, placing her arms between Callie and Arizona "The surgery went well, she'll be okay. _if_ I can get her to ICU and be monitored. You can fret over her there" Bailey ordered as she Owen pushed past Callie with the bed. Callie fled after the bed like a bloodhound and Mark quickly followed suit.

-Teddy and the others brought April on a gurney, out of the OR and down the corridor to the elavator and pushed the bed inside. They all stood in silence, all too tired and drained to say anything.

The surgery had went well but now the rest was up to April. Her face was gaunt and slim, unhealthy looking, but they hoped that would change. The elevator doors opened with a bing and the group poured out into the ICU corridor. As they headed down they spotted Mark, Callie, Bailey, Chief, Derek, Owen and Robert waiting in the foyer, all looking exhausted and drained of energy.

The four reached, with the bed and stopped infront of them. "Woah!" Alex in surprise at the difference in April's appearance. Robert looked on in shock for a moment before he wondered over to the bed and picked up April's hand and held it in his own.

"What happened to April?" said Bailey, pushing her way to April's other side and inspecting her closely. Teddy jumped in "She had sepsis from an infected wound on her leg. We just cut off the infected flesh and put her on antibiotics and methylprednisolone" she informed moving to the left and revealing the I.V. drip attached on the side. "okay" said bailey.

They all stood in silnce contemplating the days events and the uncharted fate of their friends and other survivors of the tunnel disaster.

-Lexie tried to open her eyes. Slowly but surely by every milimeter she wrenched her open to let the blinding light fill her vision, her eyes burned. She waited out as the pain lessened and the light dimmed so that she could eventually make out the fuzzy outlines of her hospital room.

To her left, sat in a rather large lounge chair was her sister Meredith, who was curled up on the seat like a cat as her head resting against the the leather padding of the frame. Lexie smiled, never having been so happy to see her big sister. Lexie tried to call out Meredith's name and was surprised when all that came out was a hoarse grumble, barely recognisable to her own. She coughed lightly, felling a warmth and tingle from the back of her throat as she did "M-mer" she gasped.

At this she saw her sisters eyes flicker in wonder as she woke. She looked over to Lexie, staring at her for a second in surprise "LEXIE?" she shouted. Lexie visably flinched at loudness of Meredith's voice, her head pounding. She groaned in hopes that Meredith would get the picture, "Oh, sorry" Meredith said, lowering her voice to a half-whisper.

Lexie smiled and Meredith gave her a huge grin in return and reached for a glass of water sat on the bedside table, facing the straw to Lexie's mouth and letting her take a sip. She felt the cold contents soothe her imflamed throat and felt instant relief.

"Hey" Meredith soothed "How's your head?", "Pounding" she replied with a small smile "But I'm alive". Meredith sighed happily "Yes you are".

Lexie gasped in shock as she remembered, April, Arizona. where were they? were they hurt? were they still alive?. Meredith shot up in worry, thinking something was happening.

"Lexie, what's wrong?"

"A-April and...Ariz-ona" she stuttered "Are they-"

"They're still alive",Lexie sighed ,relieved.

"Are they okay?"

"They got hurt...but hopefully now they'll be okay. It was just you three that got badly injured the rest of us are okay"

"What happened to me?" Lexie said confused

"Mark said that you got hit on the head with a pipe and knocked unconscious, and that April carried you through the tunnel by herself. The she met up with Mark and Robert Stark and you all got seperated, she carried you up to the surface herself. She saved your life" she informed a bemused Lexie. At this Alex and Christina entered the room with Jackson and he smiled at her with his dazzling, bright smile.

"Lexie, your awake" he said perplexed before walking over and kissing her on the cheek.

"I am and I'm fine" she stated

"I just told her what happened" said Meredith, filling them in

"How's April?" Lexie directed at Jackson and Christina.

"Okay for now" Christina commented in her bland voice

Jackson and Alex eyed Christina, "Don't be a jackass" Alex shot at her "April will be fine"

"I hope so. I hear she saved me from drowning in the big, scary tunnel"

"I know" Christina laughed a little "I always thought it would be the other way around. Still she kicked ass"

"She did" Lexie said "You should've seen her in the tunnel, she was pretty awesome. She was totally on the ball, even Arizona was impressed"

The group continued talking for ages, delighted to have one of their own back and distract them from the troubles faced with their two remaining colleagues.

**-Next day**

The day following the incident had been slow. Everyone was drained by the harrowing events that had took place merely hours before. Today the sun shown brightly, as it had done yesterday afternoon before the destructive storm had created mountains of chaos in and around Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.

It was a great reminder to Bailey that life was unpredictable and chaotic and unfair. Yesterday she had been working happily and mindlessly away with her fellow surgeons, watching them laugh and joke with their friends and family. Now she stood in the middle of the ICU wing of the hospital, her lunch tray sat on the counter.

She was positioned perfectly so that she had a view of each of the three rooms that held April, Arizona and Lexie. She had lost far too many Doctors, friends already and was in no position to loose this lot. She, similar to the other surgeons had been sneaking in and out of the ICU to keep tabs on the three incapacitated doctors.

Lexie had awoken and now sat up in ease in her hospital bed, chatting away with Meredith, Alex and Jackson. Bailey turned her head to Arizona Robbin's room to see Callie and Mark sat on each side of the bed and talking quietly while both placing glances in Arizona's direction.

Finally Bailey glaced to April's room and saw none other than Christina Yang stood beside her bedside, looking at what she thought was the monitors. Bailey found this sligtly curious and walked over to the door and making her way inside.

"Yang?" Christina looked up unexpectedly, but relaxed when she saw Bailey standing by the door

"Oh, Doctor Bailey...How are you?" she said a little nervous, like a child caught unawares by their parent

"Fine...uh..what are you doing here?" she asked Yang

"Just checking in on April. She was alone-What?" she said bemused by the awkward look on Bailey's face "I can be nice. She's our friend too"

Bailey eyed Christina suspiciously "I've known you for a long time and _you_ are not one for little visits-at least not on your 's up?" she demanded

"She just dropped"

"What?" Bailey said

"She just dropped right infront of me. I thought she was dead, I mean she looked it" Christina caught Bailey's further confused expression "I-I mean, I just mean that whenever you see April she's usually so perky and annoying and-April" she muttered "A lot like McPerky in the other room there and when I saw her last night, saw them it just shook me a little. It never occurred to me until I saw them how serious the whole thing was, how much worse it could have been for everyone".

Bailey's face softened into sympathy for the woman beside her. She knew Christina had the reputation for cold-heartedness, sarcasm and the emotional range of a teaspoon. But underneath all the sarcasm lay a very emotional and loyal person, this had been proven by the friendship with Meredith, Alex, George and Izzy, the antics with Burke and the situation of the shooter last year.

"I know it's scary, but they're in the best of hands now, _us_. They'll be okay" said Bailey confidently "Now go be with your other friends, I'll keep and eye on her". Yang looked at her with a small smile, all she had needed was the pep-talk of Bailey to lighten her mood, cause if Bailey was sure it was good enough for her.

With that Christina walked out of the room and Bailey sat down on the bedside chair and watched the small, steady lines of April's breathing on the monitor. Ten minutes later Bailey had peeled opened a yoghurt cup she had purchased from the cafeteria and was scanning her eyes over a chart she had when she heard footsteps enter into the room.

"Doctor Bailey. Sorry I didn't know you were in here, I'll come back later". Bailey looked up from the chart to see the exhausted form of Robert Stark, a slight look of surprise on his face.

"No, that's okay you can come in. Sit down"

"Thank you" he said before making his way over to a chair on the opposite side, he groaned in pain as he sat down clutching his back with his right hand. His left hand she noticed was bandaged over the palm.

"You okay? Did you get yourself checked out?" she questioned. Stark nodded and laughed tiredly

"I'm fine. Just feeling the effects of last night. It was a mean workout " he joked sarcastically, avoiding Bailey's glare. "I'm fine" he stated as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair "I guess I'm just finding it hard to shake off, I'm not as young as I used to be. I just checked on Doctor Robbins, she's stable and looking better".

"That's good. Are Doctor Sloane and Torres still there?"

"Their lunch ended much to Doctor Torres disappointment but the Chief is in their now" Robert said still shifting in his seat before standing up.

"Have you hurt your back?" Bailey asked annoyed

"No, just sore muscles from the 'obstacle course' last night. I guess falling asleep on a spare gurney at three in the morning didn't help" he said chuckling "I'll be fine. There's people alot worse off than me" he said.

Bailey nodded, reassured and looked at her watch "Lunch is over, time to go for me"

"After you" Robert said pointing to the door

"Are you not staying, you just got here?" she asked

Robert shook his head "Just checkin up, I'll come by later. Besides I have lots of work to do and me and Karev are the only sugeons on the PEDS floor since April and Arizona aren't there". Bailey walked out of April's room followed by Stark before heading to their respective areas of the hospital.


	6. Chapter 6

Arizona smiled to herself as she wallowed herself in thoughts of Callie and Sofia, holding them, being with them, talking to them. She felt like she was dreaming as she pictured them sat in their big family kitchen.

Sofia cooing and laughing as Mark made stupid baby faces and tickled her chin and Callie as she stood by the stove with a large cooking pot, stirring a ladle in circles so that conjured up some inticing smell of food that Callie made perfectly.

Arizona sat on the couch watching observantly, a glass of her favourite white wine cradled in her hand. It was an image she loved and had been ever since Sofia had graced them with her presence and it made her feel at peace.

She watched as Callie walked over to the sink and ran the tap, water poured strongly from the spout and whirred in her head. Flashes of water, waves of it suddenly filled her mind, rushing and swishing around her. She looked to Callie, Mark and Sofia to see if they had noticed anything, they stood in their perfect poses as they had from the beginning, unaware.

Soon the lovely scent of delicious home made food Callie had lovingly concocted was replaced by the cold, fresh smell of the water, alerting her senses. Again the flashed roamed her head and she saw more...the tunnel...the people...the water...Mark and Robert...April and Lexie.

Then a feeeling of warmth spread over her abdomen and she looked down. Blood. Lots of it oozing down her stomach onto the couch and suddenly Arizona felt a gripping pain where the blood oozed from. She felt as though her insides were on fire or tearing apart, it didn't really matter, it was all pain. She yelled in pain as loud as she could, anything to lessen or dissapate the pain.

-Callie sat diligently by her love's bedside. She had tried to absorb every possible moment she could in the ICU beside Arizona, who still sat in what looked like her almost lifeless form. She and Mark had maintained constant vigilance, taking turns to stay by Arizona's side.

Callie saw Mark look as worried as she had. And guilty, at the fact that he felt responsible for letting the blonde doctor end up in such a disasterous position when he had promised his best friend and himself otherwise. Callie had been by briefly at Lexie and April's bedside to see how they were, they had all ended up in the ICU unlucky for them. Lexie, she knew was awake, but April.

April was just as bad off as Arizona and she felt bad. She knew it wasn't just her who found April _really _annoying but the new chief resident had proved herself more than capable in a trauma situation, as Owen had predicted, and yet there she was in a hospital bed fighting for her life. Life was just really unfair.

As Callie pondered her extremely negative thoughts she heard the growingly erratic beeping of Arizona's heart mmonitor to her left. She looked to see the lines bounce on the screen. In shock she looked down at her wife's form and saw a pained look on the formerly peaceful face and the grip of her small hands tighten onto Callie's in desperation.

"Aaghh!" The blonde surgeon yelled as her body instinctively tensed and jerked on the bed in rigorous pain. Callie instantly panicked "Ar-A-Arizona?" she said shocked.

But as Arizona continued to squirm in pain, ignorant of Callie's call, Callie jumped up from her seat her eyes trained on the blonde and reached for her call button by the side of the bed "Help! I need help, NOW!" she yelled scared.

She soon snapped out of her shock and grabbed Arizona's shoulder and leg trying to coax her back onto the bed. She saw Arizona was in some kind of bad dream and soon the nurses and interns flooded in and set to work by administering drugs for pain and soothing her with calming words as Callie watched.

After about five minutes the drugs began their effect and Arizona lay still again on the bed, dazed, but awake. She was staring at Callie with tired eyes, as though her mind was blank and she couldn't form a word and Callie began to worry that she was brain damaged. Eventually Arizona lifted her head slightly at Callie and smiled "Cal" she whispered in a hoarse, sleepy voice.

"Arizona" Callie replied, a huge grin on her face "Your awake"

-Arizona smiled at this, happy to see her beautiful, loving wife and not to be stuck in the nightmare. "Yeah" she said as she gripped Callie's hand in hers with all the strength she could muster. Callie was delighted at the strength Arizona still had despite the exhaustion and pain she knew the blonde felt.

The couple stared at each other, oblivious of the appearance of Mark and Sofia who stood at the door and watched the two interact in their own way. Eventually Sofia decided enough was enough and that she wanted to see her mothers and let out a high-pitched whine. The woman turned in surprise at the noise but smiled when they ealised who it was

"Ooops!" Mark said as he tiptoed in with the small child in his arms, he handed to Sofia to Callie with open arms who cooed and wiggled her fingers at her. He walked over to Arizona and gave her a peck on the cheek "Hey there Blondie" he laughed and she smiled at his old nickname for her "Hey Mark" she said, a tone of relief in her voice.

"You're okay" she said

"Course I am"

Another whine came from the now crying infant sat inCallie's arms "Oooh" she mused "This one needs changing I think. I'll go take care of her" Callie said as she walked out the room with Sofia.

"So when'd you wake up?" Mark said breaking the silence

"Ten minutes I think. You missed the drama earlier, apperently I was having some crazy nightmare that woke me up" she laughed

"Wouldn't blame ya!" he replied with a nervous smile

"Thank you" Arizona stated plainly, catching Mark unawares with her words "You saved my life"

"Yeah cause I was gonna let you drown" Mark said sarcastically rolling his eyes as he did.

"You could have died"

"So could've Robert. He helped too"

"I know and I'll thank him when I see him but right now I'm thanking you. Besides it looked like you put alot of work into it and it did some damage" she said lifting her hand half-heartedly to point at the red, angry scrapes down the left side of Mark's face "I know how much you rely on your good looks".

Mark caught her joke insult at him and lifted his hand dramatically to his heart "I'm so hurt you think I'm so superficial, Robbins", he then lifted the same hand to his ear as though to catch her words "Buut, you think I'm good looking" he replied smiling. Arizona laughed at his act "I do. I can't tell a lie".

Again Mark looked at her seriously "Thanks for not dying on me". Arizona smiled again

"I mean...Callie would have seriously kicked my ass"

"HA!"

-It was six in the evening and the orderlies were sending round dinner to the wards and surgeries had been slow as the influx of patients from the tunnel had slowed and most treated. This allowed the surgeon's to make their way up to ICU at the news of Arizona's awakening from surgery. Now they sat croded around the bed with room for Lexie who had been wheeled in by Meredith.

"Hey glad you're alright" said Arizona smiling at Lexie as she walked through the door "But where is April, shouldn't she be here?" she asked in wonder. Everyone looked around at each other or at their feet.

"Where is April?" she asked again before a dark thought came to her mind at their solemn expressions "Oh my God! is she dead?" she yelled

"N-no" came Bailey's voice "She's in ICU as well. She suffered a wound which became septic from all the time spent in the water"

Arizona nodded that she understood "Will she be okay?"

Bailey stood silent and looked at Arizona, as though mentally weighing whether to tell her what the situation was.

"Just tell me"

"April isn't getting any worse we don't think. But she isn't really showing improvement either" said Mark playing with his hands.

The group of doctors looked around, they all knew that after the few days it had been that April should have shown more improvement than she had, her monitors after surgery had remained steady and her fever had abated for the time being.

Still they had been lucky that she hadn't gotten any worse and all they could do now was wait. She was the last survivor to still be fighting. The only doctor left.

-Robert felt a slimmer of hope seeing Arizona and Lexie both up and about, although they had a lengthy recovery ahead. Still, they were alive to try he thought to himself positively. Now Robert sat vigilant by April's bedside anytime he could, taking small leaves home to take a shower or eat at the cafeteria.

However he slept at April's bedside and did his chartwork there, he basically lived there. This didn't go unnoticed by the other doctors who came to visit April everyday and saw Robert nine times out of ten perched on the leather chair, reading a chart or with his head tilted to the side.

Today he repeated his actions and sat by the bedside on his break. April, in the couple of days he sat here had not had any negative repercussions from surgery but to him had become paler and paler as the days wore on. He felt the overwhelming urge as a stander-by to say something or take note but as a doctor knew nothing more could be done. To him it was all rather maddening.

He looked at April, seeing her sallow skin and thinning frame, how vurnerable she looked. He reached over with his right hand and took hold of her small hand laying on the bed. He gripped her hand tightly hoping the action might trigger her senses, that maybe she would grip his hand and show herself awake and healthy.

He stared for what seemed like forever until suddenly he heard the beeping of the heart monitor above him. The lines ascending sharply upward and retreating back down showing her erratic heart beat.

"HELP!" he shouted in panic as he ran outside the room and waved his hands to the room and motioned an intern to come "Code Blue!". He rushed inside and immediately began impressions, his hands clamped down on April's chest and pushing down hard in hopes to revive her non-beating heart.

The interns and nurses piled through to get to April with a crash cart and running in came the small attending surgeon Bailey "What's going on here?" she exclaimed. Robert gave her a brief glance, panting as he kept compressions on April's chest to no avail "She just started coding, I don't know why" he stated.

Bailey nodded her head to the nurse who pushed the crash cart to her and she lifted the paddles "Charge to 100". Robert stepped back from April and brushed his hands worriedly through his hair, close to breaking down at the sight before him. The machine whirred as it charged and Bailey pressed the paddles to April's chest ."Clear!" she shouted as the electrical charge shot through the young surgeon's body and she shot up from the bed before flopping back down, once again lifeless.

"Again" ordered Bailey as she pressed the paddles to April's chest. Robert, his mind completely blind from panic as though his whole medical training had been wiped from him backed up against the wall. He placed his hands over his mouth to stop the nerve-wracking sobs that threatened to escape and felt hot, wet tears fall onto them.

Bailey looked over at the devastated face of Stark in desperation. If they didn't act fast April would die and she needed his help. "Doctor Stark" she shouted but he didn't respond

"Doctor Stark"


	7. Chapter 7

Arizona smiled as she held her beautiful, tiny one-year-old baby in front of her as she attempted to blow out the red candles that graced a large pink birthday cake.

"Happy Birthday!" everyone shouted as Callie helped blow out the candles in Sofia's aid and watch the smoke billow into the air.

"Epic fail" shouted Christina at the childs attempt to blow out the flaming candles. Everyone laughed as Sofia clapped her hands and outstretched her arms when the cake was lifted away to the counter.

"Don't be mean" April laughed at Christina "Candles can be tricky"

Christina scoffed "The only people who have trouble with candles are babies, old people and the idiots that set themselves on fire trying to light them". April sensed a lost cause at trying to have a battle of the wits with Christina and picked up her digital camera "Picture" she said as she placed herself infront of Arizona, Sofia, Callie and Mark who all posed with huge smiles on their faces.

"Uh oh" Alex said sarcastically to everyone "The camera's back". April made a face at Alex before running up and flashing the camera infront of his face "Hey!" he laughed

Robert shrugged at him "I tried to hide the thing but she found it within the hour" he joked and Alex smirked. Robert looked over at Sofia now in Callie's arms and saw how cute and positively happy she looked with all the people being with her. Callie brought over Sofia to where Zola, Meredith and Derek's daughter sat and they began playing with the toys sat between them. Robert squeezed April's hand and she looked up at him

"They're cute aren't they?" he said "Think we should try for one of those". April looked at him in surprise "You serious?" she asked. Robert shrugged.

"Yeah why not?"

"No reason. Just surprised"

"Why?" Robert questioned

"You've just never mentioned it before"

"Well now I am"

April stood a little shocked when Alex jumped in "It would be fun to see how your kid turned out", April looked at him annoyed "What does that mean?"

"Well if it had your perkyness and your 'd be all over the place"

"Oh your real funny Karev" said Robert dryly suppressing a small smile

"Hey, I better be Godfather"

"Oh now you wan't to be Godfather"

"Hey what about me being Godfather? I'm your best friend since college" Jackson said half-seriously. "I'd better be Godmother" Lexie cut in. All the while the joke bickering between friends over April and Robert's fictitious child, April stood in the middle confused and dazed

"Hey what about me being Godmother?" Christina cut in after Lexie "The kid will need some direction"

"Ha! Direction? besides you're already a Godmother" Meredith whined

Robert held up his arms and slid to the counter and poured himself a glass of water whilst the other party-goers stood laughing at the residents

"So is April pregnant?" asked Callie

"No!" Robert laughed "This is a question for fortune tellers"

"Well if you do have kids and we're still around can you consider us?" Arizona joked

"Oh yeah. It'd be good to have mature adults as a role model"

"Are you sure Arizona is a _mature_ adult?" Callie questioned. Arizona looked at Callie with amusement on her face

"What does that mean?" she laughed

"Welll-" mark began "You do wear heelies and dolphin stickers and..pink scrubcaps"

Robert laughed as he saw the three of them regressed into an arguement about their maturity. He walked back over to Sofia and Zola wjo were now joined by Bailey's son Tuck.

He smiled as he walked past them all playing happily with each other and stood with Bailey and her boyfriend Eli on the otherside who also were watching the playful arguements.

"Hard to believe they're all brilliant, hardcore surgeons on a daily basis, isn't it?"Bailey mused

Robert chuckled "Oh yeah"

Robert watched the commotion one more time before he leaned in to Bailey and Eli

"Hey. If and when we do actually have kids...do you and Eli wan't to be the Godparents?"


End file.
